


Equivalent Exchange

by BlackM



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Naruto
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Alchemy, Cannon change, F/M, Family, Friendship, OC as main character, Slow Burn, Violence, little sister to Rock Lee, maybe throw in a little romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-05-14 14:58:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 36,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19275661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackM/pseuds/BlackM
Summary: "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange." Too bad the law of Equivalent Exchange didn't cover this. OFC.





	1. Principles

**Author's Note:**

> “Alchemy, it is the scientific technique of understanding the structure of matter, decomposing it, and then reconstructing it. If performed skillfully, it is even possible to create gold out of lead. However, as it is a science, there are some natural principles in place. Only one thing can be created from something else of a certain mass. This is the Principle of Equivalent Exchange.”

**Chapter One:**

Equivalent Exchange

 

It was silent.

The only sound that could be heard was the slight scratching of chalk against stone. The  _ tap, tap, tap _ as lines were added and circles were drawn.

“That oughta do it.”

The voice came from a small boy who looked to be no older than eleven. His short blond hair fell in front of his face and he reached up to push it away. A determined smile tilted at his lips and his amber eyes looked up towards the two other children in the room. The boy held a wooden stick about the length of his arm in one small hand and he lowered it back down to his side, a small piece of chalk sticking out of the end. 

“You ready?” He spoke again, his amber eyes lit up in excitement.

“Are you sure this will work, Ed?” The unsure voice came from his left and he turned his head to look at the girl next to him. 

The girl shared much of the same looks as the boy, Edward. Her golden hair hung down her back in soft waves as she leaned over on her knees to examine the outline in front of her. The girl’s eyes, about two shades darker than Edward’s, took in the neatly drawn chalk lines. After years of preparation and study, it had been drawn to perfection. 

The giant circle of white chalk outlined the stone floor in the center of the basement. Liquid ingredients muddled with dirt and blood were laid out in the center of the circle as if in offering. Chemistry beakers each filled with varying measurements of ingredients were spread out around the three children. A tome, filled with notes and dog-eared pages, sat on the floor behind them. In the back corner of the room stood a tall suit of armor, the metal flickering in the candle light. Posters filled with alchemy notes were plastered all over the empty spaces on the concrete walls, hanging above bookcases and cluttered workbenches. 

“Alena,” Edward smiled at her, “everything’s perfect, no need to worry.”

The girl sighed and shook her head. “Shouldn’t I be the one saying that? I’m the oldest after all.” 

Alena was older, it was true, but she was only older than Edward by a year; a fact he never let her forget. She sat back on her haunches and blew a stray piece of hair out of her face. They had been preparing for that very moment for the last four years. Not only had the three of them spent years and years pouring over books of research, but they’d also been off studying with an alchemy master for the past six months. 

_ They were ready. _

“What about you, Alphonse, are you ready to do this?” Alena asked the last of the three children. Her littlest brother, younger than her by two years, looked over at her with wide sepia eyes. His hair, a shade darker than his sister’s, looked brown in the candlelight. He was nervous, but he wouldn’t tell them that, and he fisted the soft material of his pants. 

“Don’t be scared, Al.” Edward reassured his little brother and reached over to squeeze one of Alphonse’s clenched hands. “We’ve been preparing for this for years. It’s now or never.”

Alphonse paused before releasing the death grip he had on his pants. He nodded. 

_ It was now or never, after all. _

“Alright then.” Alena breathed in deeply through her mouth and exhaled out of her nose. “Let’s do it.”

None of the children heard the rain pounding outside.

Alena leaned forward and placed two small hands on the outer circle and watched as her little brother’s followed suit. She felt a burst of energy flow through her body, into her hands, and spread across the circle. It was like a pull, a small tug from the bottom of her being, her very  _ self _ . It joined the energy coming from both of her brothers and she squinted her eyes as the transmutation circle in front of them lit up in yellow light. The energy pulsated, sending gusts of wind into the air and Alena’s hair whipped around her face from the force. 

She grinned as flashes of electricity burst from the center of the circle. It lit up the room as the transmutation circle thrummed with energy. The center exploded into a tornado of wind, almost ripping the breath from her lungs. It was  _ working. _ She could feel it. She could almost reach out and grasp it, it was so palpable. Alena looked over at her little brothers and laughed at the euphoric looks on their faces. It only took a second.

The energy suddenly turned dark and the circle started to pulsate with need, with  _ hunger _ .

Alena’s eyes widened as she saw a streak of red lightning burst through the room. It wasn’t supposed to turn that color. That wasn’t supposed to happen! Her heart sped up, the muscle beating into the cage of her chest. 

_ Bump, bump, bump. _

“Something doesn’t feel right.” The panicked voice of Alphonse came somewhere to her right. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t  _ think. _ The dark energy pulled at her, tugging at the very seams of her soul. 

She tried to yank her hands away from the cold stone floor, but they wouldn’t budge. She couldn’t move. The air left her lungs as the middle of the transmutation circle transformed. The chalk lines disappeared and she found herself staring into the depths of a giant ringed eye. Black tendrils burst from the outer circle without warning, and she watched as four of them attached themselves to Alphonse’s left hand. 

His scream pierced the room as his hand  _ disintegrated _ . 

“Al?” Edward’s frantic voice drew her attention. His wide amber eyes were fixated on the spot where his little brother’s hand used to be. “Al--”

Edward’s voice cut out in a pained scream. 

Alena looked down.

His left calf was severed in half.

Black tendrils wrapped around the detached limb, their nonexistent mouths devouring it. 

Edward had collapsed onto his stomach, his eyes wide and his mouth open in a silent scream. 

“It can’t be,” his voice shook with pain and fear. “A rebound?” 

It wasn’t supposed to go wrong. It wasn’t supposed to be  _ this _ !

Alena didn’t even have time to react.

A black tendril flew at her, attaching itself to her left eye. It pulled and tugged until it too, disappeared. She screamed and grasped at the place it used to be with a shaking hand. Blood ran down her face in rivets and her throat tightened in fear.

“Brother!” 

Her head flew up and her remaining eye widened. 

Alphonse was being dragged, piece by piece of his body being ripped apart by the tendrils. He screamed so loud that the blood vessels in his eyes burst. She could see the bloodied whites of his sepia eyes as he reached out a hand towards Edward. 

Edward reached out a hand towards Alphonse.

And then he was gone. Her baby brother disintegrating into  _ nothing. _

* * *

_ Crash _ !

The sound punctured through what once was relaxed silence. An accompanied  _ thud _ followed as a girl no older than five years old fell onto the floor. She blinked hazidly up at the white ceiling above her. The girl’s body was tangled in a pile of blankets, half of it still hanging off of the couch next to her. Shakily, she pressed her fingers to her forehead. The dream she had been having had felt  _ so real _ . 

“Rock Lee! What have I told you about running in the house?” 

At the sound of furious yelling, the girl pushed herself back onto her elbows to try and peer around the coffee table next to her. She could just barely see the small form struggling to get up in the hallway right outside of the living room. A little boy of six years wobbled onto his feet, his arms flailing outwards in an attempt to balance himself. Clutched in one of his tiny hands was a small wooden block. The girl’s eyes moved down to see a mess of stacking blocks spilled out all over the hallway.

“I’m sorry, Aunt Nanoko.” The little boy, Rock Lee, apologized. His sad, dark eyes dejectedly took in the mess on the floor. “I just wanted to play blocks with Matsuko-chan.”

A tall woman stood near the other open doorway into the living room and she stared at the mess in front of her in silent anger. Nanoko’s long dark hair had been pulled back into a low ponytail and it swished as she slowly shook her head. In her hands was a weaved basket full of supplies and she grasped it with white knuckles. She already had her shoes on, a pair of sturdy brown leather boots, pulled over her long black pants. Her black long sleeve shirt had been rolled up to her elbows, exposing her slightly tanned skin. 

Dark eyes narrowed and lips pinched, Nanoko clutched the basket tighter to her hip. Nanoko didn’t spare the child another glance as she turned on her heel to walk towards the front door. She paused for a moment before reaching out for the door handle. “Clean it up.”

And then she left, the door closing behind her. She would be gone for most of the day working down at a fish stand in the market. Not that it mattered really, since she was always gone. 

“Big brother?” The little girl scrambled out from under her prison of blankets and hurried to the boy’s side. Ignoring the mess on the floor, she reached out to smooth down a loose black hair that had fallen out of his braid. Rock Lee nodded at his sister, lower lip jutting out in a sad frown. His other hand, the one not holding onto the wooden block, clutched at the white shirt he was wearing. The boy stared down at his bare feet, his brown pants falling just above his ankles. 

Matsuko narrowed her eyes at the closed front door and reached out and poked his cheek. “Let’s play blocks.”

Rock Lee looked up at her then, black hair framing his face. “I don’t want to anymore.”

“Why not?” The girl huffed. She reached out and poked his cheek again. “Because of  _ her _ ?”

Her brother just shook his head at her, frowning. Matsuko sighed and blew a strand of her own black hair out of her face. Her brother was always a cheerful, smiling kid. But their stupid aunt somehow always managed to make him frown.

Both of their parents were dead. Killed during some attack on the village that Matsuko had no knowledge of. She had been a baby then, barely a month old when it had happened. Rock Lee had been only a year old during the time, so he didn’t really have any memory of it either. All they knew was that their parents were gone and they had been forced to live with their aunt. Nanoko had been the only living relative the two young siblings had and they had been placed with her instead of in an orphanage. Though Matsuko believed that their aunt would have rather had them be placed in one.

“Let’s do something else then!” Matsuko grabbed her older brother’s only empty hand and tugged gently.

“Like what?” Rock Lee asked, his big round eyes staring up at her from underneath his long eyelashes. Matsuko took a moment to think, her other hand coming up to rest on her cheek. She jabbed a finger in the air when the idea hit her.

“Let’s go to the park!”

“But won’t Aunt Nanoko get mad?” His voice came out as a mumble and Matsuko scowled at his sad 

face.

“Who cares? Not like she’d notice anyway. Come on!” She tugged on his hand, completely ignoring the mess of blocks in the hallway, and pulled him behind her towards the front door. 

Matsuko let go of his hand in order to shove his blue sandals into his arms and lean down and tug on her own. Rock Lee didn’t protest as she grabbed his tan, high collared coat from the hook next to the door and shoved that into his now empty hands. Matsuko pulled on her own blue coat as her brother slowly buttoned the front clasps of his own. 

“Let’s go have fun!” Matsuko grinned, reaching down to grab his hand again. She felt happiness well up inside of her when he matched her grin with his own. 

The door slammed shut behind them, but the whole way to the park the girl couldn’t help but feel like she’d forgotten something. 


	2. Foundation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Energy and matter can neither be created from nothing nor destroyed to the point of elemental nonexistence. This is the law of the conservation of mass.”

**Chapter Two**

Foundation

 

“Big brother, look at this!”

Heads turned at the sound of books slamming against a table, the sound interrupting the peaceful silence. Matsuko pointedly ignored the annoyed looks she was getting and plopped down into one of the library’s wooden chairs. Across the square table sat her older brother, his eyes peeking up over his small book in curiosity. Rock Lee blinked at her as Matsuko pushed two heavy looking books towards him. He could barely read the kanji written on the spines before she plucked the first one from the stack and opened it up. Watching as she feverishly turned through the pages, Rock Lee gently sat down his own book.

Matsuko had taken to dragging her older brother with her to the village’s main library. They hadn’t been able to read thanks to their inattentive guardian, so Matsuko had taken it upon herself to teach the both of them. She had refused for them to be labeled as “incompetent,” as she had phrased it. It had been slow going at first as she forced them to pour over children’s books in a corner of the kid’s section of the library. But after months of pushing, they were able to read pretty well. The more advanced scrolls and books containing complicated kanji took a little longer to decipher, and Matsuko had taken to carrying around a small dictionary. She liked the challenge and she had an incredible thirst for knowledge at such a young age. 

Matsuko hummed in excitement when she found the correct page in the book she was searching though. Tapping a finger on the page, she pushed it towards her brother. Rock Lee blinked and glanced down. On the page was a photograph that took up the top half of the allotted space. A smiling woman stared into the camera lens, her dark eyes squinting in happiness. She had short dark hair cut into a bob to her collarbone and square rimmed glasses. It looked like the camera had just caught her turning towards it; a grin on her heart shaped face and a hand trying to tame her blowing hair. She stood on the front porch of a house, the red door open behind her. Rock Lee’s eyes slid further down to the text written beneath the photo and he inhaled sharply. 

“Mm,” Matsuko hummed at his reaction, “that was mom. Her name was Chinami.”

“How did you find this?” Rock Lee breathed out as he pulled the book closer to him, his dark eyes trying to memorize the details of the photograph.

“Well, mom died during an attack on the village a few years ago, right? There’s an area in the back of the library that has written obituaries of casualties of the village. It took me a while to find it, but there she is.” Matsuko watched her brother sadly as he traced the picture with a fingertip. “She was a civilian. I couldn’t find any of her family members, so I think that Aunt Nanoko was the only family she had. But that’s not all.”

Reaching forward to grab the second book, she flipped it open towards the middle. When she found the correct page, she pushed it over towards her brother to join the first one. Rock Lee gently moved the first book out of the way and grabbed the second. It had been opened to show a photograph, much like in the same fashion as the first book, though this one pictured a man. 

It looked cropped, like the author of the book had cut something or someone out of the picture. A man stood in what looked like a small clearing in the woods. Worn wooden posts about the size of a grown man stuck out of the ground behind him. They were laden with small knives (kunai, as Matsuko had shown him in a picture book once) and the trees in the background stood tall. The man was wearing a green flak jacket similar to the ones that the two siblings had seen shinobi wearing around the village. He had long black pants secured to his leg by bandages and a tan pouch strapped to the left side of his waist. His long brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, the bottom of it flowing down to end at his rib cage. A black headband rested on his forehead, the metal plate in the center showing the symbol of their village. It appeared that Matsuko had inherited her father’s eyes. They were more almond shaped than her brother’s round ones, although her father’s eyes had been green and hers were as dark as her brother’s.

“This book is different than the first. That one had civilian casualties, but this one has ninja ones.” Matsuko watched as her brother’s mouth parted slightly in surprise. “At least, most ninjas, the civilian born ones I think. I doubt the bigger village clans keep information of their dead at the public library.” 

Matsuko was referring to the shinobi clans that formed a portion of the population in their village of Konohagakure. Konoha, also known as the Village Hidden in the Leaves, located in the Land of Fire, had a total of seventeen shinobi clans. At least, that was what she had read during one of her evenings spent at the library. Shinobi, also known as ninja, were the main source of military power for hidden villages. They fought with what Matsuko had first thought was magic, but later on learned was something called chakra. They could use it to do things that seemed almost impossible, at least to civilians. Shinobi could use it to walk up walls, jump from buildings, and even use astonishing techniques known as jutsu. 

Matsuko had learned that the ninja arts were comprised of three different techniques: ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu. Ninjutsu had a large array of different things and jutsu that it could be used for, whether for medical purposes, defense and even offence. Matsuko hadn’t been able to find as much information on genjutsu, but with the small amount of texts that the library had on the subject, she’d been able to learn at least a little bit. Genjutsu used chakra to affect the mind, making people see and feel things that weren’t really there. And the last, taijutsu, involved martial arts. 

Four out of the seventeen clans were considered to be of prominent heritage, but they all tended to be very secretive and guarded when it came down to the shinobi arts. And Matsuko hadn’t had a lot of interaction with them, aside from seeing them around the village from time to time. 

“So dad was a ninja?” Rock Lee smiled slightly down at the photograph, tracing the text below it. He had been named after his father apparently. The two siblings had never been able to find any pictures of family lying around at their aunt’s house and they had reluctantly accepted that they may never know anything about them. But there they were, and while the books didn’t have much information- only a name and picture- it was enough for them. 

“Yeah.” Matsuko answered with a small nod. “I don’t know how or why he died, but it was during the same attack that killed mom.”

A few moments of silence passed between them, the only sound being a small group of people at the next table over mumbling quietly. 

“We shouldn’t let his legacy die,” Rock Lee said in a small voice, his head down.

“What do you mean?” His sister blinked at him.

“I mean,” he paused, looking up at her with sudden determination shining in his dark eyes. His hands clenched into fists on top of the open book and he leaned forward against the table. “We should become ninja too! He died protecting this village and the people inside of it. The least we could do is to not let his legacy die with him!”

Matsuko leaned back, surprised at the vehemence from her brother. Shinobi were looked at as heroes, as people who would go above and beyond the call of duty for not only their village, but for the ones they loved as well. Sure, being a ninja came with a lot of cool things like chakra and jutsu and glory, but Matsuko wasn’t naive enough to not know that killing people for a living came with a price. Like her father for example. He had died young, or at least that’s what she thought based off of his photograph, and left a family behind. Would she really want to risk her life to possibly the same way he had? 

Rock Lee reached across the table and grabbed both of his sister’s hands at her silence. “Let us become ninja together! That way, we will always be able to protect and support each other.”

Matsuko stared long and hard at her brother with pursed lips. She knew what that look on his face meant. He was stubborn when it came to things that he really wanted, almost to the point of obsession. She knew deep in her gut that if she didn’t agree, then he would most likely pursue a shinobi career without her. That was how stubborn he was. Closing her eyes, Matsuko released a deep sigh. She couldn’t let her brother put himself in danger without her there to make sure that he made it out okay. Matsuko would never be able to live with herself if something happened to him because she wasn’t there to keep him safe. Decision made, she looked back at her brother’s hopeful expression and nodded sharply.

“Okay.”

His face broke out into a wide smile and he slammed his small fists onto the table, ignoring the looks it garnered from the library’s other patrons. His grin was so wide that the corners of his round eyes squinted. “Yosh! We will become strong together, then.”

Matsuko smiled and lifted a hand towards him, holding out a pinky. “Together then. Always.”

Rock Lee’s pinky wrapped around hers and he nodded once. “Always.”

 

“No way kid,” spoke a monotone voice. “Come back in a few years.”

Matsuko glared at the bored looking man sitting in front of her. He was leaning back in his chair with his sandaled feet propped up on the desk in front of him. His arms were crossed over his vested chest as he looked down at the siblings through his only visible eye. The other eye was covered by a fringe of brown hair, the length ending at his chin. He wore a bandana style blue headband over his hair, the dull metal reflecting her annoyed expression.

The day after Matsuko and Rock Lee had made the decision to become shinobi, he had dragged her down to the Academy. It was the place all ninja went through to receive training and become official Konoha shinobi. They wanted to enroll, but the front desk ninja was currently hindering their plan. Rock Lee stood next to her and his fists clenched at his sides when the desk ninja rejected their request.

“Why not?” Matsuko asked angrily, crossing her arms across her chest. She was well aware that she probably looked more cute than threatening at the moment, but she didn’t care. 

“You’re too young. The age required to join the Academy outside of wartime is eight.” The man replied, completely unmoved by her scowl. Which was why Matsuko hadn’t bothered to remember his name.

“Then why can other kids enroll before then?” It was true. Matsuko saw a few kids who looked the same age as her wandering home from the Academy sometimes. The desk ninja sighed like the weight of the whole world had been placed upon him.

“Because they’re clan kids. They receive training from families years before enrolling.” The ninja raised a brow and glanced them over. “And you don’t look like clan kids to me.”

“You sure?” Matsuko challenged. “We might be, for all you know.”

The ninja looked unimpressed. “Right. Look kid, just come back in a few years and you can enroll then.”

Matsuko opened her mouth to argue, but Rock Lee reached over and grabbed her hand. Blinking, she sent him a questioning look.

“Let us not be discouraged!” He gave her a thumbs up with his other hand, a determined fire shining in his eyes. “We will come back in a few years and fulfill our promise.”

After a moment of silence, Matsuko shrugged. If he was fine with waiting then she would be too. She sent one last glare at the ninja manning the desk before turning on her heel and marching out of the room, dragging her brother behind her. 

Matsuko always believed that it was better to be prepared for something than to be unprepared. And so, after they had been rejected she had dragged the two of them back to the library. When her brother had asked her why they were going, she had pointedly informed him since the so called clan kids got to be more prepared for the Academy than civilian kids, then they would be too. Matsuko had stalked through the aisles of books, occasionally plucking one out and stacking it in her brother’s arms. She had grabbed books pertaining to the basics of chakra and ninjutsu, scrolls of taijutsu forms and techniques, and whatever basic scrolls she could find on genjutsu. 

After that, she had marched the two of them back to their empty house, their aunt nowhere to be seen, and locked the both of them into their shared room. The apartment that they lived in was small and she didn’t want to chance her aunt stumbling upon them and take away any chance they had at becoming shinobi. Matsuko didn’t know much about her aunt, but what she did know was that she hated ninja. Whether it was because her sister married one or because of some other reason, Matsuko didn’t care. And so she had placed the small pile of books and scrolls in the center of the room and sat down cross-legged on the wooden floor. Rock Lee had joined her, an excited smile spread across his face. And so that was how they spent the next few months. Their days were filled with reading books and scrolls in secret and practicing what was written on the pages.

Genjutsu had been too difficult to practice and so Matsuko had discarded that idea quickly. For the life of her, neither she nor her brother could get a grasp on it and it had taken up too much time. Taijutsu was a little easier, but they always woke up sore the next day after practicing the basic katas illustrated in the scrolls. It was when they practiced chakra control exercises that they hit a wall.

Chakra, it turned out, was a little difficult to get a grasp on. The book for beginners had outlined the importance of learning chakra control. Since chakra itself was absolutely essential to be able to perform jutsu and to reinforce the body for taijutsu, it wasn’t something that they could just skip. And so Matsuko had picked out a book on basic chakra control and bought two notebooks from a store in the market with some money that she had “borrowed” from her aunt.

Matsuko had given one notebook to her brother and she kept the other one to herself. One of the most basic chakra control exercises was to try and stick either a piece of paper or a leaf to a part of the body. The trick was to create a thin layer of chakra between the skin and the piece of paper, therefore latching onto the paper with the chakra. The easy part was sticking the paper to herself, but the hard part was keeping it there. If she concentrated hard enough, she could hold it for at least five seconds before it unstuck and fluttered to the floor. Chakra was like an unused muscle: difficult to flex at first, but if you worked at it then you would build up your reserves and ability to use it. Since she was so young, her chakra reserves, the amount that she had in her body, was small. This made her tire easily after using it and she would have to take a break.

Though for some reason, accessing her chakra hadn’t been as difficult as she thought it would have been. It had taken some time, yes, but when she closed her eyes and reached for it, she could feel it at her core. She could feel the energy pushing and pulling when she tried to mold it, like a warm flow of energy lingering beneath her skin. It didn’t feel like it was apart of her organs or veins, but more like it made up her very being, her soul. Using it felt like greeting an old friend and she couldn’t put her finger on it, but it felt familiar. Like she had done something similar before, almost a muscle memory. 

Rock Lee hadn’t been so lucky. It turned out that he didn’t have the same ability to mold his chakra. He had trouble bending and moving it to his will and would often stay up at night after she went to sleep to practice. She had tried to give him pointers, but it was much more difficult to help someone else mold their chakra since she couldn’t feel it herself. It had taken him a few months longer than her to be able to stick the paper to his skin. He couldn’t hold it there very long, but it was a success nonetheless. Matsuko had cheered and pulled him into a hug after his accomplishment and he pushed even harder after that to succeed. 

Maybe they would become strong ninja after all.

  
  


“Hey, wake up!”

The girl jerked awake, her head lifting from between her arms. She blearily looked up at the person beside her, lifting a hand up to wipe the drool from the corner of her mouth. Apparently she had fallen asleep reading again and knew that there was probably an indent on her forehead from the open book lying between her arms. The girl leaned back from her hunched over position in her chair, stretching her arms into the air and cracking her back. She looked at the small boy standing next to her, his finger still outstretched to poke her again if she fell back asleep.

“What is it?” She asked, voice still hoarse with sleep. She rubbed at her eyes and yawned; she was so tired. She had been up all night researching and pouring over books.

“Look at what I found.” The boy next to her waved a leather bound journal in her face, the edge of the pages flapping around with the movement. She took it from his outstretched hand and skimmed her eyes over the pages. 

“Are these..,” the girl squinted at the written ink and neatly drawn lines. There were messy, handwritten notes crammed into the corners and spaces on the pages. The handwriting was different from the main paragraphs and her eyes widened as she read over them. “Notes on elemental transmutations?”

“Yeah.” The boy next to her, her brother, answered. He leaned over her shoulder to look at the journal balancing on her knees. “I haven’t been able to completely decrypt it yet, but it’s all right there. I know how much you wanted to learn some new material.”

“Ed, where did you get this?” The girl asked breathlessly, her eyes hungrily devouring the words on the pages. 

Almost all mid to high level alchemy books were encrypted in order to prevent anyone not skilled enough to use it from hurting or killing themselves. And the journal in her lap was definitely encrypted. Some of the words were written in ancient Greek and some in Latin. When read in sequential order, the sentences made little to no sense. However, if the reader could decrypt the subtext and meaning from the jumble of words, it would all come together. Different authors wrote in different styles of encryption to prevent not only the risk of it falling into the wrong hands, but also to stop any chance of a transmutation rebound from an unskilled alchemist.

“I found it in the basement,” Edward said, reaching out a hand grab it back from her lap. He paused before he spoke again, “it’s dad’s.”

The girl’s head jerked in surprise, her mouth falling agape. “What? Where did you even find that?”

The young six year old boy in front of her shrugged. “It was in the basement buried beneath a bunch of junk.”

“What else is in there?” She leaned forward in interest, pierces of golden hair falling out of the messy bun on top of her head. 

“I’m not sure yet,” Edward admitted, “I need to finish decrypting it.”

“Do you need any help?”

“Not yet.”

“Edward.” The girl tilted her head and gave her brother an unimpressed look. She could tell by the bags under his eyes that he had been up all night pouring over the journal. 

“Alena.” Edward gave his sister a cheeky smile. He knew what her tone meant and ignored it.

“Brat.” Alena grinned and reached out to smack her younger brother on the arm. “Don’t stay up all night trying to decrypt it, got it? Maybe spend some time being a normal kid and not some super smart genius.”

Edward simply raised an eyebrow at her and lifted his eyes to stare pointidley at the red marks still present on her forehead. Yeah, like she was one to lecture him about staying up all night researching. Alena huffed and gently pushed him towards the door with a hand.

“Yeah, yeah. Get out so I can finish my notes before lunchtime.” 

She could already smell the aroma of lunch being cooked downstairs and Edward raised two fingers to his forehead in a mock salute before sauntering back out of her room. When the door closed behind him, she turned back to the mess lying on her cramped desk. Thick books were stacked on top of each other, some with pieces of paper with notes sticking out of them. Opened in the book in front of her was a picture of a transmutation circle. The one on the drawn was used for combining copper and tin to make bronze. 

Next to the book was a notebook propped open to show her latest sketches. There were three different sections split into two pages detailing each step of creating the transmutation circle and what each one meant. Not only was being able to draw a transmutation circle important, but the ability to understand what each line meant was even more so. If an alchemist attempted to create a transmutation that they didn’t really understand, it could have serious consequences. Like the one she was sketching out now.

She had fallen asleep while drawing the fourth step and picked up her pencil to continue. Being careful not to smudge the two neatly drawn outer circles, Alena added a two inverted triangles to the center of a hexagon in the middle of the circles. They overlapped each other, one triangle pointing up and one down. When added, the center looked kind of like a six sided star. The purpose of adding the triangles was so that she could harness the power of both fire and earth, since she was creating a metal. If the two triangles had been flipped, then she would have harnessed the power of air and water instead, which wouldn’t work in that situation.

Alena continued with her notes, adding lines and shapes. After it was completed, she moved on, flipping through the pages of the book in front of her. She stayed like that for a while, the soft sound of pencil scratching paper filling the silence. 

“Alena, boys! Lunchtime!”

The voice of her mother broke through her concentration and she sighed and put down her pencil. Looked like she’d be working after lunch too.

 

 

Matsuko shot up in bed, the blankets around her falling down to her waist. She squinted against the headache pounding in her skull and groaned at the sunshine peeking in through the blinds of her room. Matsuko could just barely hear the sounds of the shower running in the bathroom across the hall and she guessed that her brother had gone to take one while she napped. She had completely exhausted herself with another chakra control exercise and had completely passed out in her bed.

Fingers pressed to her forehead, she tried to shake off the lingering voices of her dream. She shook her head as information stuck out in her mind like a beacon. The dream had been strange and it had the same people from a dream she’d had months ago. She didn’t understand it. However, the knowledge lingering in the back of her mind made her pause. 

What if…? 

Her hands pulled out the notebook hidden underneath her bed and she slid a pencil out from between the pages. She paused, closing her eyes to picture it in her mind's eye. After a moment, she opened them back up and scribbled lines onto the pages. 

It looked like she had a new project to scavenge the library for. Did it even have a section of information on that? She wasn’t sure, but she was going to find out.


	3. Comprehension

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  “An object or material made of a particular substance or element can only be transmuted into another object with the same basic makeup and properties of that initial material. In other words, an object or material made mostly of water can only be transmuted into another object with the attributes of water.”

**Chapter Three**

Comprehension

 

The library did not, in fact, have any books or scrolls on the subject of alchemy. Matsuko scowled as she scavenged through the aisles for the third time. The closest thing that she had found to the drawings she had seen in her dream were in scrolls on something called fuinjutsu. It was apparently the art of using drawn seals in order to store things in small objects, or store living (or dead) beings, and a variety of other things. Matsuko had scoffed and put the scrolls back where she had found them. Like genjutsu, there wasn’t a whole lot of information on fuinjutsu and it wasn’t what she was looking for anyway. 

Maybe she really was just reading way to deep into a dream that wasn’t even real. 

Standing in the middle of an empty aisle, Matsuko huffed. Her brother was off somewhere else in the building and she was alone for the moment. She hadn’t told him about her dreams. Mostly because she didn’t even know how to explain it and didn’t want to bring attention to something that might turn out to be insignificant. And so she stood there, eyes roving over the shelves. Matsuko shook her head and turned on her heel to go off in search of her brother. For now, she would just forget about it. Or, at least, that’s what she was planning to do. 

It wasn’t until she reached the end of the aisle that her feet paused in front of a section of books and scrolls. She glanced up at the kanji written above the shelves towering in front of her. Something in the pit of her stomach made her reach out and run her finger over the spines and she bit her lip in hesitation. After a moment, she shrugged; it wouldn’t hurt to gain a little more knowledge. And so Matsuko took a book from the shelf and resumed her search for her older brother. 

That was one thing she loved: knowledge. Learning how to read had awakened some incredible thirst for learning. She had realized that in this world, knowledge was the key to becoming strong. And she wanted to become as strong as possible, not for herself, but to protect her brother. Rock Lee wasn’t like her in that aspect. Sure, he was dedicated to learning what he needed to become a great shinobi, but he had so much energy that he couldn’t just sit around all day staring at books. So he would always interrupt her reading to drag her down to the park near their house to get some fresh air and exercise.

Matsuko wasn’t the most social child. Whenever she would get dragged to the park with her brother, she would always stand on the sidelines while he made quick friends with whatever kids were there. Rock Lee could make friends with any random stranger off the street with his charismatic personality. However, Matsuko failed in that aspect. It wasn’t that she didn’t know how to socialize or that she was afraid, she just preferred the company and the intellectual stimulation of her books. If it wasn’t with her brother, then she could care less about socializing. She knew that his made her a weird kid, but she didn’t really care. She would never be as easy going as her brother and she was okay with that. 

“Aniki!” Matsuko called out, careful not to yell too loud and catch the attention of the cranky librarian. It seemed like the more she and her brother came to the library, the more irritated the head librarian became. Sure, they weren’t the quietest, with Rock Lee not knowing how to whisper and Matsuko not caring to. But that didn’t mean she had to throw them out (quite literally) everytime they got too loud. 

“Over here, Matsuko-chan!” Rock Lee shouted from behind a shelf of books nearby. Matsuko grimaced at glare the head librarian shot her from the desk positioned in the center of the library. Scrambling to get out of her line of sight, Matsuko followed the direction that her brother’s voice had come from. 

Rock Lee was sitting on the carpeted floor, back leaning against the bottom of a shelf and a book spread open on his lap. He was looking at the obituary again, the face of their father staring up at him. Sometimes when her brother needed another spout of motivation, he would pull the book out during their visits. Matsuko had first noticed him doing it whenever he had failed at a chakra control exercise or took too long to accomplish it. She would leave him alone whenever he did it, preferring to give her brother whatever space that he needed. 

“Are you ready to go?” Matsuko asked, eyes scanning the rows of books boredly. 

“Yes. Did you get everything that you needed?” Rock Lee clamored onto his feet and slid the book back into its place. He had to stand on his tippy-toes in order to reach the shelf, his seven year old body not quite tall enough yet. 

“Yeah.”

Rock Lee moved towards her and glanced down at the book in her arms. His face twisted in concentration as he slowly read the kanji on the cover. It took him a moment, his lips silently sounding out the syllables. “Basics of Chemistry? Why do you wish to learn that?” 

“Why not?” Matsuko shrugged. “Might be useful.”

Rock Lee accepted his sister’s weird reading tendencies without batting an eye and followed her to the check-out counter. Matsuko refused to meet the eyes of the glaring librarian, choosing instead to nonchalantly look around her. The library wasn’t very packed that day, only being filled with a few patrons here and there. Most of them were civilians, but she saw one or two ninja there as well. Matsuko sent the librarian the brightest smile she could muster when she handed her the newly checked out book. SHe could feel the glare on her back the whole way out the door.

When they got home later that day, Matsuko stretched out on her bed to read her new book. Instead of reading, her brother chose to watch some action movie in the living room instead. Televisions weren’t a rarity in Konoha, but the only way to watch a movie was to buy a VHS tape from a bookstore and pop it into a VCR. There weren’t a lot of viewing options in their apartment as their aunt was rarely home to watch movies and the siblings didn’t have a source of income to buy their own. Which, speaking of, their aunt was absent again, most likely either still at work or just avoiding being home. Nanoko had pretty much left them to raise themselves. She would only really provide food and a roof over their heads and could care less about what they did during the day. When Matsuko and Rock Lee were younger, their aunt had hired a nanny to watch over them while she worked. That was the only way that they had even been able to learn how to speak. 

Reaching under her bed to pull out her notebook, Matsuko opened it to a fresh page and grabbed her new chemistry book. She hadn’t been able to decipher a lot of the information from her dream, but what she did know was that alchemy involved chemistry. Even if it  _ was _ all in her head or just a figment of her imagination, it wouldn’t hurt to know some basic chemistry. It could be very useful if she ever chose to explore the possibility of a career in the medical field. 

‘ _ Chemistry _ _ is the science and study of matter, including its properties, composition, as well as reactivity.  _ _ Chemistry _ _ relates to everything that can be sensed, from the minute elements to complex structures. The atoms and molecules are the  _ _ basic _ _ unit or components of  _ _ chemistry _ _. _ ’

The  _ scritch, scritch, scritch _ of pencil on paper filled the silence in the room. Matsuko could faintly hear the sounds from the movie playing in the living room and the shouts from Rock Lee as he cheered on the protagonist. 

‘ _ Everything that occupies space and has mass is defined as matter. Matter exists in three states: solids, liquids, and gases. The combination of both the proximity of particles, and the freedom for the particles to move determines which state something is in. _ ’

Matsuko paused before making a note at the top of the page. From what she could remember from her dream, alchemy  had something to do with manipulating the matter of objects. At least, that’s what she assumed. So she made sure to pay special attention to the information just in case. She continued with her notes, the soft sound of turning paper accompanying the shouts from the living room.

Life for the two siblings continued on that way for the next year. Although she hadn’t had any more strange dreams, Matsuko had moved on to more intermediate chemistry books. She had become very taken to the subject. Being in a world where people could spit balls of fire and walk on water, it was nice to have something with a structured set of rules. Science was different from chakra and jutsu in a way that you couldn’t just manipulate it any way that you wanted. 

Matsuko had tried teaching it to her brother, but it didn’t seem to hold his interest for very long. She could tell that he would sit with her and try just because it was something that she enjoyed, and she loved him for it. His joyful, optimistic attitude always encouraged her to continue learning. Rock Lee supported his sister in anything and everything that she set her mind to and she couldn’t imagine not having him in her life.

Which was why when Rock Lee’s eighth birthday came and went seemingly out of nowhere, she and her brother had a dilemah. 

“Aniki,” Matsuko groaned for the millionth time, “I really don’t mind if you enroll without me.”

“But we made a promise to do this together!” Rock Lee waggled a finger in his sister’s face from where he lay on his stomach across her bed. “And I do not break promises!” 

“I’ll only be a year behind you.” 

Matsuko gently smacked her brother on the top of his head with her foot. He squawked and reached up to bat her bare foot away. She had managed to mess up his braid and she smirked in victory. 

His hair had gotten longer, the end of his braid now reaching the top of his shoulder blades. Her older brother’s eyebrows had also grown into thick caterpillars above his eyes and he blatantly refused whenever she offered to pluck them. ( _ No Matsuko-chan, I like my eyebrows very much, thank you.) _

Her own dark hair had grown out as well. Matsuko liked to keep it down to the middle of her back and she even cut her bangs to look like her brother’s. She’d done it herself with a dull pair of scissors -their aunt not caring to do it herself- and they looked a little choppy, but she didn’t care.

Leaning back against the headboard of her bed, Matsuko stared down her brother. “Besides, I’ll catch up to you before you know it.”

They were talking about the fact that Rock Lee could now officially enroll into the Academy since he was finally of age. The fact that he was a year older than Matsuko had completely slipped their minds when they had first made the promise to become strong together. Rock Lee had complained and refused to enroll without his sister, and she had been trying to convince him for  _ days _ . Kami, he was so stubborn.

Matsuko didn’t want to be the thing that held him back from accomplishing his dreams. So she kept the concerns about not being able to protect him for at least a year to herself. Since he would enroll a whole year before her, she wouldn’t be able to become a ninja until he was well into his own career. That fact had bothered her a little, but there was nothing she could (or would) do about it.

“But Matsuko-chan--”

“No buts! I’ll drag you down to the Academy myself if I have to.”

Rock Lee opened his mouth to argue yet again and this time she slapped a foot to his face. She didn’t hit him hard enough to hurt, just enough so that he made a disgusted face and tried to squirm away from her. 

“Aniki.” Her tone turned serious and he looked up at her from where he we viciously scrubbing a hand across his face. “Do it for me, if not for yourself.”

Rock Lee’s eyes softened and he huffed out a breath, his shoulders slumping. Matsuko knew that she hadn’t played fair because she was well aware that her brother would do anything for her if she asked. However, Matsuko wanted the best for him and she knew that this was the only way to do it. 

“Fine,” her aniki grumbled, flopping to the floor in defeat (he was such a drama queen). 

Matsuko cheered, throwing her arms up in victory. She didn’t care if she had to take a cheap shot if it meant that he got to achieve his dreams faster. And the next day she had accompanied him down to the Academy to enroll. Despite his initial refusal, he had been practically vibrating with excitement. 

When Matsuko and her brother had looked over the list of items that were required for first year students, Rock Lee had slumped his shoulders. Since their aunt had no idea he was enrolling, they had no way to buy the supplies that he needed. And so, Matsuko had taken it upon herself to “borrow” some more money out of her aunt’s wallet. It had been easy to sneak into her room while she slept and Matsuko took a little at a time so she wouldn’t notice. 

When her brother’s first day at the Academy approached, she had walked with him so that he wouldn’t be alone. The main yard at the Academy had been packed with children and their families. It had been a nice day, the beginning of fall, and the leaves had just started changing colors. Matsuko loved Konoha during the fall because the giant trees around the village would shed the prettiest colored leaves. She hated summer time the most. Since Konoha was located in the Land of Fire, the summer heat waves were always scorching and humid. The only way to keep cool was to stay indoors, but Rock Lee hated being cooped up. So Matsuko was always forced to sit under a tree in the shade with a book while her brother played in the park. She wasn’t a big fan of hot weather and preferred the colder months.

As they walked through the yard, Matsuko recognized some of the shinobi clans by the insignia’s switched into their clothes (the Uchiha), or tattoos on their faces (Inuzuka). She even recognized some of the pretty-yet-strange eyes of the Hyuga clan. Matsuko secretly loved their lavender, pupiless eyes, but sometimes they were a little creepy when she couldn’t tell what they were looking at. 

Blinking, she felt the nervousness radiate from her brother next to her and tried to calm his nerves. He was excited, yes, but he was also nervous as hell. 

“Don’t worry, aniki.” Matsuko reached out and grabbed his hand in her own. When he looked over at her with big, round eyes, she gave his hand a squeeze. “Go show those snobby clan kids just how good you are!”

Some of the aforementioned clan kids passing by them turned to give her a glare. Matsuko ignored the narrowed eyes from the stuck up Uchiha and smiled encouragingly at her brother. She couldn’t stay long because the Academy greatly “encouraged” independence in their students, and families could only stay long enough to drop their kids off. 

“Thank you for the encouragement, Matsuko-chan. I will do my best to not let you down!” 

Rock Lee pumped his fist in the air, his eyes burning with sudden determination. Matsuko grinned and patted her brother on the shoulder. 

“That’s more like it. Do your best!” 

“Yosh!!” 

“Excuse me!” An instructor standing in front of the Academy called their attention. Matsuko and Rock Lee turned towards the noise, having to stand on their tippy-toes to try and see through the crowd. 

A woman stood at the front, dressed in a standard chunin uniform. She was wearing a green flak jacket, one a little thinner than a jounin one, and blue pants. The ends had been tired down with bandages and they stopped about an inch above the tops of her dark blue sandals. She had shoulder length blonde hair pulled back into a strict, no-nonsense looking bun and pupiless teal eyes. A Yamanaka, Matsuko recognized. They were well known for their mind walking techniques and Matsuko shuddered at the thought. She couldn’t even imagine what it would feel like to have someone crawling through her brain. 

“Could all the families who are not students please leave now. The Entry Ceremony will begin soon.”

Matsuko turned to her brother, arms clasped behind her back. “Well, this is it. Good luck, aniki!”

“I will make you proud!” Rock Lee clenched a fist in front of his chest, eyes shining with fire.

“I know you will.” 

Matsuko sent him one last grin and gave him a gentle push towards the now forming crowd of children. Turning on her heel, she ducked her way through the mass of leaving adults and back onto one of the main dirt roads of Konoha. She inhaled the smells of the market through her nose and turned he face up towards the open sky. Shinobi hopped across the roofs above her and she let the loud murmur of people pass over her. 

Setting her destination, she scampered off to the library. She had a lot of free time to study after all, and she wasn’t going to waste it. 


	4. Structural Bonds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "In order to begin an alchemical transmutation, a symbol called a Transmutation Circle is necessary. A Transmutation Circle can either be drawn on the spot when a transmutation is necessary (in chalk, pencil, ink, paint, thread, blood or even traced in dirt) or permanently etched or inscribed beforehand, but without it, transmutation is generally impossible."

**Chapter Four**

Structural Bonds

 

Rock Lee’s first year at the Academy did not go very well. 

Matsuko had noticed a few months after he began training at the Academy. It was slow coming at first, but day after day her brother would come home sadder and sadder. His big round eyes had lost their usual happy-go-lucky shine and his shoulders would hunch in on himself. He would stay up late every night after she had gone to bed to practice his chakra control and would rarely get a full night’s rest. It wasn’t like him, and quite frankly, Matsuko was worried.

They were sitting across from each other at the dining room table, containers of takeout spread out on the wooden surface. Their dining room was small and pretty much connected with the kitchen; the only thing that separated it was a rounded archway. Their aunt wasn’t home (surprise) and Rock Lee had recently gotten home himself. Matsuko had gone to her brother’s favorite barbecue spot in the village and ordered take out in an effort to cheer him up. 

She stared at her brother, setting her chopsticks on the table in front of her plate. She didn’t like seeing him like this. 

“What’s wrong?” She spoke, her voice pulling her brother out of his thoughts. Rock Lee paused, chopsticks with rice halfway raised to his mouth. 

“Nothing, Matsuko-can.”

“Liar.”

Matsuko narrowed her eyes as he chewed, trying to rack her brain for anything that could have caused his change in demeanor. She tilted her head to the side and gave him  _ the look _ . Rock Lee had once told her that when she looked at him that way, it felt like she was picking him apart piece by piece to see what lay underneath his skin. 

“Whatever has you feeling this way can’t be that bad.”

Her older brother paused in his movements, fisting his chopsticks and breaking her gaze. He glared down at the half eaten plate in front of him, shoulders shaking. Matsuko flinched when his chopsticks snapped in two and fell to the floor. Leaning forward, she reached across the table to grab his hand, but he snatched it out of her reach before she could. Matsuko’s mouth parted in surprise and, if she was being honest, a little bit of hurt. He had never pulled away from her like that before and it stung.

“Aniki?” Matsuko whispered, hand still reaching into the open air.

“It’s been months and I still have not gotten any better.” Rock Lee’s voice was low and his eyes stayed fixed firmly on the plate in front of him. His whole body was shaking now, his hands clenching at the table. “I’m not like the other kids. How can I become strong if I can’t even keep up?”

His slammed his fists against the table and the plates rattled. Jaw clenching against the silent tears rolling down his cheeks, he brought his hands to his face, palms pressed against his closed eyelids. 

“No one else has to work as hard as I do. I do not know if I will ever be able to work hard enough to beat real talent. I keep thinking all my efforts will pay off, but it is always the same. I do not know if I can take it. Sometimes it seems like the whole thing is pointless. Like I am a loser and I will  _ always be _ a loser.”

His voice broke off and his shoulders shook, chest heaving with the effort to contain his sobs. Matsuko stood slowly and rounded the table, pulling out the chair next to him. Her heart broke to see her brother like this. She hated to see him in pain.

Reaching out her hands to rest on his shaking shoulders, she gently turned his torso towards her. “Aniki, look at me.”

Her soft voice coaxed his hands from his face and he opened tear filled eyes to look at her. Matsuko let go of his shoulders and wiped the tears streaming down his face with the long sleeves of her shirt. 

“You’re not good at using chakra or ninjutsu or genjutsu, but so what?” She grabbed his shoulders and squeezed. “All of those other kids don’t have to work as hard as you, but  _ so what _ ? You don’t need to be like them to be strong. Your hard work means nothing if you don’t believe in yourself.”

Rock Lee choked out around the lump in his throat. “You...you really think so?”

“I know so. We’re supposed to become strong together, aren’t we? You can’t slack off and just let me surpass you. You might not be good with chakra, but you don’t need to be.”

“I don’t?” He stared up at her, eyes filled with confusion.

“No,” Matsuko said firmly, an idea coming to her mind, “you don’t. You’re just going to have to perfect the one thing that you can.”

Her brother stared at her questioningly and she felt her lips twitch upwards in a smile. She jabbed a finger into his chest, “you’re going to become a taijutsu master!”

“Taijutsu...master?” Rock Lee’s eyes widened and his lips parted at the exclamation. 

“Mm. You’ll show all those bastards exactly what you’re capable of!” Matsuko yelled, punching a fist into the palm of her hand. A grin spread across her face when his eyes suddenly lit up with the flames of determination. 

“You are right!” His hands clenched into fists on his lap. “I cannot let my hard work go to waste!”

“That’s more like it!” 

Rock Lee paused for a moment, eyes narrowed in thought. He leaned forward and clapped his hands on her shoulders, face fierce. “Train with me. And together we will become the greatest thing this village has ever seen!”

“Do you even have to ask?” Matsuko scoffed in amusement and held a pink up between them. Her brother grinned and he locked his own pinky around hers. 

“We shall begin tomorrow morning!”   
  


* * *

 

Matsuko always made a strong effort to try not to regret a lot of things in her life. But as she lay out on the prickly grass and stared up at the coming dawn, she was really starting to rethink that decision. Her body hurt and she couldn’t get air into her lungs fast enough. Stretching her arms above her head, she sighed, breath puffing into the cool air in front of her lips. Staring up at the sky, she contemplated never moving again. And by the screaming muscles in her arms and legs, she knew her body agreed too.

“Come on, Matsuko-chan! If we cannot do five hundred pushups, then we shall do one thousand punches!”

If Matsuko had the strength to punch her brother in the face one thousand times, she would. She glared over at where he stood next to the lone tree stump in the middle of the forested clearing. Rock Lee had pushed her out of bed at the ass crack of dawn, exclaiming that since the Academy was not in session that day, they would dedicate it to training. Matsuko had been training with her brother in his free time for the past few months. While it had been slow going and difficult for her at first, she was steadily getting stronger. Muscles had started showing themselves on her arms and legs. Not a lot though, since she was still only a child with baby fat.

They had been training that morning for hours and Matsuko was really itching to sit inside for the rest of the day and read her new chemistry book. Even though it had been months of constant physical exertion, she still wanted to keel every time they trained. Her brother was a  _ slavedriver _ . 

Rock Lee walked over to her and passed her the bottle of water he had just drank out of. Grunting out a thanks, she took it and tossed back a swig of her own. It was cold on her tongue and she tilted the bottle over her face to wash the sweat from her eyes. She wasn’t sure how he had found the clearing that they had been training in since it was located so far into the trees surrounding the village. They were the only two living souls there, not a sound besides the soft chirps from the crickets in the bushes. It had been getting steadily warmer outside as the months rolled by and Matsuko grimaced at the thought of springtime. With springtime came hotter and hotter days until summer showed itself and she melted.

With one last look at the orange tinted sky, she held a hand out towards her brother. Grinning, he reached over and helped her up. The weather was still a little cold from the night and she envied his high collared beige coat. Rock Lee had rolled the sleeves of it up so that they left his forearms bare, and she could already see the calluses forming on his knuckles. He wore black training pants that reached to the tops of his ankles and standard blue ninja sandals. His hair was pulled back into its usual braid, but pieces of it had fallen out around his head from all of the physical exercise.

Matsuko herself only had on a long sleeved, dark blue tunic and skintight black leggings. She had also gotten herself a pair of ninja sandals, but her’s were the same black as her pants. Her hair was pinned to the top of her head in a messy bun with a red chopstick and it dug into her scalp as she tucked her long bangs behind her ears. 

As she and her brother attempted to complete the five hundred pushups, she couldn’t help but admire his determination. He was the most hard working person she knew (though, not that she knew a lot of people) and she looked up to him so much. As much as she loved her books and disliked the mere existence of exercise, she wanted to make Rock Lee just as proud to be her brother as she was to be his sister. He was her motivation, and so she worked hard and pushed herself everyday for him.

“Four hundred and ten, four hundred and eleven, four hundred and twelve.”

Matsuko’s arms shook and she tried to blink past the sting of sweat in her eyes. Her breath came out in wheezing puffs and she grit her teeth against the pain. Beside her, Rock Lee clenched his jaw against the burning in his arms and grunted out the count.

“Four hundred and thirteen, four hundred and fifteen, four hundred--”

Matsuko’s arms gave out and she collapsed face first into the grass beneath her. She made a frustrated sound and lay there for a moment, letting the determined voice of her brother pass through her ears. He didn’t make it much longer than her before he collapsed next to her. 

Matsuko turned her head, sliding her shaky arms across the cold grass to use as pillows. The limbs barely obeyed her and she felt the sweat from her forearms stick to the sweat running down the side of her face. She grimaced in disgust but didn’t attempt to wipe it away. It would have been pointless anyway since her whole body was drenched in it.

“Punches then?” She asked her brother breathlessly. Her body  _ ached _ , but if he wouldn’t give up then neither would she.

“Yes,” Rock Lee panted from beside her. With shaking arms, he pushed against the ground one last time and got to his feet. “If we cannot do one thousand punches, then we shall do two thousand kicks!” 

Matsuko pushed herself up after him and followed him to the tree stump in the middle of the clearing. It stood about a head taller than both of them and three times as thick as her body. The wood was warped from all of the beatings that it received, the center of it curving into an hourglass shape. Matsuko clenched and unclenched her hands as she stood on the opposite side of Rock Lee. 

He had shown her the proper way to throw punches that he had learned from the Academy months ago and she dropped into a ready stance. She stood with her legs shoulder width apart and her toes pointed at the tree stump. Matsuko held her hands up in front of her face, the left slightly forward and higher, and the right lower and closer to her face. 

“Begin!”

She punched the tree, the sting of the bark cutting into her skin radiating up her shoulder. Over the past few months she had developed hardened calluses on her knuckles from all of the time spent punching trees. It had hurt at first and her skin had broken apart and bled, but now it didn’t really bother her as much. 

“Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen.” 

Bark flew from the tree and Matsuko squinted against the debris. It was going to be a long day of training, but she was ready for it. 

Matsuko’s eighth birthday came and she spent it holed up in her room with her books. She’d had another dream the night before, blonde hair and amber eyes dancing behind her eyelids. That had made four times in the past six months and she still didn’t know what the dreams meant or why she had them. But she had scratched out the knowledge in her journal anyway, too curious now to just shrug it off.

The pages of Matsuko’s notebook had been filled months ago with chemistry notes and she’d even added physics to her studies. Since she’d needed something else to write in, she ended up buying a thick journal with money from her aunt’s wallet. Maybe she should have felt bad about taking money from Nanoko so often, but her aunt was a horrible person and Matsuko didn’t care. 

The black leather journal had only a few pages filled out. Matsuko had started to write her alchemy notes in the same code that she saw in her dreams. She wasn’t sure what language it was, but she could understand at least some of it. Which was odd to her. Why were the dreams so vivid that she could remember such detailed information? Normally when she dreamt, she could barely remember them the next day. The whole thing was a puzzle.

She liked puzzles.

Transmutation circles, she’d learned, were difficult to create. Not because they were hard to draw, but because they could be so complicated. Different shapes meant different things and if they were messed up or incorrectly placed, it could spell out disaster. Hell, if the main base wasn’t drawn in a perfect circle, the whole thing could become unstable and blow up in her face. Which was the main reason why Matsuko hadn’t tried using alchemy yet. She’d wanted to test it out and see if it was real or just a hallucination of her mind, but she’d promised herself to wait and learn more before attempting it. Rock Lee would never forgive her if she managed to blow herself up, after all.

Matsuko began her first day at the Academy not long after her birthday. A new term hadn’t been slated to start until a few weeks after her birthday, so she’d had to wait. But when the day finally came, she was buzzing with nerves.

“Do not worry Matsuko-chan!” 

Matsuko shot Rock Lee a tight lipped smile. He was standing next to her in the main yard of the Academy. It was crowded much like it had been when she’d dropped him off for his first day. Luckily for her, it wasn’t summer quite yet so she wouldn’t be completely cooked alive. Matsuko watched as kids and families walked around her, the incoherent chatter flooding her ears. 

“Your first day will be great, I promise! Or I will run one hundred laps around the village!”  

Heads turned at the exclamation as Rock Lee shoved a thumbs up into her face, teeth blinding in the sunlight. Matsuko snorted in amusement and shoved a hand against his shoulder.

“No, idiot. Because then I’ll have to run it with you.” 

Matsuko’s legs were still tired from when they had run fifty laps around the village just that morning. They would have gone longer, but Matsuko had protested because she’d wanted to at least have  _ some  _ energy for her first day. 

“Then we will run  _ two _ hundred laps!”

Matsuko grimaced, hiding her growing horror at the thought. She could deal with the punches and kicks and everything else, but Kami she  _ hated _ running. Huffing out a sigh, Matsuko scanned the yard. She didn’t recognize anyone there besides a few of the civilian born children that her brother had played with sometimes at the park. 

A breeze blew and ruffled the small hairs sticking out of her messy bun. Matsuko had never been very talented at dressing herself since she hadn’t had anyone around to help her. So her hair often suffered as a result. She didn’t know how to style it neatly and she stared at some of the little girls in envy, with their stupidly perfect ponytails and braids. 

A blonde girl caught her attention then, her short pretty hair framing her face. She stood with what Matsuko assumed to be her parents and two small boys. The girl appeared to have lost interest in the bored looking boys with her and scanned the yard instead. Matsuko blinked as the little girl’s teal eyes found her own dark ones. The girl tilted her head and lifted a hand in a small wave. Matsuko hesitantly waved back and the girl, seeming satisfied, turned back to yell at her companions. 

“Who is that?” 

Matsuko shrugged at her brother, just as confused as him. “No idea.” 

“Excuse me, everyone! Could I have your attention please? The Entry Ceremony is about to begin.”

  
_ Oh boy _ , Matsuko thought,  _ here we go _ .


	5. Adaptability

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "The proper application of alchemy requires not only a full understanding of chemistry and ancient alchemical theory, but also a sort of natural talent towards recognizing and manipulating the physical objects with energy, which require uncommon levels of intelligence and aptitude. Those remarkable individuals capable of studying and practicing alchemy are known as Alchemists."

**Chapter Five**

Adaptability

 

The Entry Ceremony was, in all honesty, dull as  _ hell _ .

Matsuko stared boredly up at the shinobi instructor in front of her, praying for it to end. She’d had to stand in the front row of the neatly formed lines of children around her. Mentally cursing her smaller height, she forced herself to keep her eyes open. The instructor, a cute brunette man, stood a few feet away with his arms clasped behind his back. He had a wide scar stretching across his face from cheekbone to cheekbone and Matsuko thought it looked pretty gruesome. Whoever had sliced his skin open had cut so deep across the bridge of his nose that his voice sounded a little nasally. His brown hair had been pulled back into a high, spiky ponytail and his hitai-ate was tied around his tanned forehead. Dressed in typical chunin clothes, a flak jacket and dark blue pants, he spoke to the platoon of kids in front of him.

Matsuko had drowned out the words coming from his mouth immediately after he had started droning on about the “Will of Fire” and all that jazz. It had something to do with drawing upon the strength of the village to protect and cherish the people who resided in it and blah, blah, blah. Matsuko didn’t have anything against the principles of the Will of Fire or whatever, but the speech was just so damn  _ boring _ . She got all the motivation and spirit she needed from her brother and honestly didn’t think she could handle any more. That boy was a supernova of energy. 

So while the shinobi (Iruka-sensei, he’d introduced earlier) talked on, Matsuko let her eyes wander. The Academy yard had emptied of all non-students a while ago and all of the older students had gone inside to resume their own studies. Rock Lee had bid her a cheerful farewell with the promise of training after the Academy let out, and ran off inside. There were two other shinobi standing off to the side and Matsuko guessed that were also instructors. Since there were a lot of kids, that meant that they probably wouldn’t all be put into one class. There had to be at least sixty children standing in the yard and Matsuko wondered which ones she would be forced to deal with for the next four years.

Matsuko let her eyes furtively shift to the person standing on her right. She didn’t want to get caught not paying attention to the boring speech and stared out the corner of her eye. A girl around the same height as her stood nervously, shifting from foot to foot. Her wide, lavender colored eyes were focused on Iruka-sensei as he talked. She had dark- almost purple- hair cut short in the back and grown out a little longer in the front to frame her face. 

_ A Hyuga then,  _ Matsuko thought, judging from her pupiless eyes.  _ What a timid looking girl.  _

Matsuko shifted her eyes to the person on her left and didn’t recognize any clan features from them. They (she couldn’t tell their gender) had soft, feminine features and long silver hair braided down their back. Light colored freckles splattered across their nose and Matsuko blinked in surprise when their attention shifted over to her. Staring into their golden eyes, Matsuko’s lips parted slightly at the memory that tugged at her vision. Blonde hair, mouth screaming, blood _ blood _ **_bloOD_ ** \-- 

The person to her left lifted a perfectly plucked eyebrow as if asking her what the hell she was staring at. Closing her mouth in both embarrassment and slight annoyance, Matsuko turned back to the front. She mentally shook herself out of her thoughts and almost slumped in relief. It seemed like Iruka-sensei was done with his speech.

“I’m going to call out your names and class number. Once your name is called, you are free to go find your classroom.” Iruka-sensei pulled out a scroll form the blue pouch attached to his hip and unravelled it. “Kenichi Kikutake, classroom 3a. Kikyo Tsurumi, classroom 3b.”

Matsuko quietly sighed through her nose. The list seemed to go on in no particular order and she waited impatiently for her name to be called. It was beginning to get hot outside and she was starting to get annoyed. The formation of children was slowly dwindling and Matsuko watched as the person to her left got called out to join class 3c. 

“Hinata Hyuga, classroom 3b.” Iruka-sensei’s voice droned on and the girl to her right walked nervously to the Academy entrance. So Matsuko had been right about that girl’s clan status then. “Choji Akamichi, classroom 3b.”

Shifting from foot to foot, Matsuko eyed the few kids that were left. It seemed like she was going to be one of the last people called and she grimaced. Walking into a classroom already filled with kids didn’t really appeal all that much to her.

“Matsuko Lee, classroom 3b.” 

Matsuko perked up at her name and gratefully stepped out of her row to walk towards the entrance. Pulling open the red double doors, she scanned the empty hallway in front of her. The beige colored walls were completely empty of posters or paintings, and her footsteps echoed off the wood floor as she walked. At the end of the hallway two more pathways branched off, one leading to the right and up a set of stairs and another to the left. At the beginning of the Entry Ceremony, Iruka-sensei had told them how to find the classrooms and Matsuko was glad she had paid attention to that at least.

The Academy was a huge maze of hallways that either led to different floors or to completely dead ends. It was attached to the Hokage tower and had been designed to prevent any outsiders from being able to easily maneuver the building. The whole layout was very confusing and Matsuko had to bite down on the groan that threatened to escape her as she climbed two flights of stairs. Her leg muscles were screaming in pain from the workout she and her brother had done the day before. After she hobbled her way back down the stairs on the other side, she stopped at a closed door at the end of the hallway.

Matsuko stopped outside and inhaled deeply through her nose and out from her mouth. Reaching out a hand, she decided to just rip off the bandaid and slide the door open. At least twenty pairs of eyes stared her down, sizing her up as she stepped into the room. Feeling the nerves pulling in the pit of her stomach, Matsuko composed her features into a blank mask. She liked the feeling of being able to hide behind something as simple as a mask. 

Pausing for a moment at the front of the room, Matsuko searched for an open seat. The classroom was split into three rows of tables, each row having three columns of tables. Three students could sit at each table and most of them were filled already. Matsuko met the eyes of the blonde haired girl she had seen out in the yard and the girl tilted her lips into a smile. The Yamanaka girl was sitting in the middle of a pink haired girl and some other girl Matsuko had never seen before. It was too bad there weren’t any empty seats next to her or Matsuko would have taken one. She may not have been good at making friends, but she wouldn’t turn down someone else’s kindness.

Tilting her head in a slight nod back at the girl, Matsuko started up the stairs towards the back of the room. She had spotted a seat and stopped at the end of the almost empty table before sliding across the wooden bench. The kid sitting next to the window jerked his head up in surprise and stared at her with the prettiest eyes she had ever seen. They reminded her of the sky at midday, or what she pictured the ocean to look like at the peak of summer. His blonde hair looked almost golden in the light shining through the window, and he had three wisker-like marks on each cheek. The boy was currently staring up at her like he couldn’t believe she chose to sit next to him. And wow, that was a lot of orange. The boy sure liked to wear bright colors.

“Uh, hey.” Matsuko greeted lamely as she slid her backpack filled with supplies onto the table in front of her. “Mind if I sit here?”

The boy paused for a moment, mouth opening and closing as if not knowing what to say. Matsuko paused in her movements and gestured awkwardly back towards the open aisle. 

“If you don’t want me to, I can move.” Matsuko felt hesitant at the boy’s gawking. What if he didn’t want her to sit there? What if he wanted to sit by himself? She would feel all kinds of embarrassed if he made her stand back up and move. Kami, she was so bad at social interactions. 

“No, no!” The boy finally spoke, waving his hands in front of his face. “You can stay if you want.”

Matsuko smiled and stopped her awkward arm movements, leaning back against the bench. The boy was still watching her with wide eyes and she paused before thrusting out a hand. “I’m Matsuko Lee. And you are?” 

Slowly, the boy reached out to grasp her hand in his own as if afraid she might take it back. “Uh, Naruto Uzumaki.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Uzumaki-san.” Matsuko brought her hand back to her side as she scanned the room. That was normally where her social interactions ended, but her brother had kindly  _ suggested _ that she try to make a new friend. 

( _ Matsuko-chan, if you are unable to make at least one friend by the end of the day, then I will run two hundred laps around the village on my hands!)  _

Matsuko knew that he had meant well and had taken it upon himself to try and help her make friends. He knew that she didn’t make friends very well and wanted to help her be more comfortable in her new environment. Especially since she was stuck in a class a year below him. Her brother would take it very personal and would blame himself if she had a bad day. Matsuko didn’t understand his logic, but she refused to let him feel like he’d somehow failed her. Also, she  _ really _ didn’t want to run around the village on her hands again. (Every time her brother made some crazy promise to repent with physical activity, she would be forced to participate). The first and only time they had run around the village on their hands, her flesh had been imbedded with so many tiny rocks and splinters that she couldn’t flex her fingers for days. 

So Matsuko turned back to the blonde boy next to her. The classroom had started to fill up more as the last remains of the crowd outside diminished. Meaningless chatter from the students filled the silence in the room and Matsuko hesitantly chewed on her lip. Naruto had gone back to staring out the window and Matsuko pursed her lips at the sad look in his eyes. He looked very lonely and she decided that she didn’t like that. 

“So, Uzumaki-san.” Matsuko almost cringed at her awkwardness. Naruto turned back to look at her, blue eyes wide. “Do you know anyone here?”

“No I, uh, don’t.” Naruto answered and Matsuko let out a sigh of relief. So he wasn’t the only one then. 

“That’s a relief.” At Naruto’s offended and confused look, she clarified. “I don’t either. My brother’s always been the one with lots of friends.” 

Matsuko paused before speaking again, hoping that he wouldn’t turn her down. She fidgeted with the straps of her backpack, the rough material helping her organize her thoughts.

“I guess we’ll just have to stick together, then. Since neither of us knows anyone else.” 

She met his eyes sincerely and Naruto’s lips parted in surprise before they spread out in a bright smile, eyes shining with hope. “Yeah! I mean, yes! That sounds like a great idea.”

“Good.” Matsuko smiled at him in relief. That had gone a lot easier than she thought it would. Digging deep to remember some of the topics of conversation her brother often engaged in, she picked one at random. “So Uzumaki-san, what do you like to do for fun?”

“For fun?” Naruto paused at the question, scratching his cheek with a finger. “I like to eat ramen! Oh, and uh, I like to pull pranks too.”

The last part was said sheepishly and Matsuko tilted her head. “Pranks?” 

“Yeah!” Naruto leaned forward to whisper loudly, “just last week I snuck onto the Hokage monument and painted over all the faces.”

Matsuko blinked in shock at the boy in front of her. She could remember quite clearly the bright streaks of paint that had covered the engraved faces of the Hokage monument. It was a very large monument carved into the side of a mountain that overlooked Konoha, and all of the Hokage’s (past and present) heads were engraved in the rock. She had been running laps around the village with her brother during their evening workout and had seen the painted over faces. Matsuko had wondered who had been brave (and stupid) enough to do something like that.

“Wait, that was you?” Matsuko gaped at the sheepishly proud Naruto.

“Yup! You should have seen the look on the old man’s face when he found out!” 

“Wow, that was pretty brave of you, Uzumaki-san.” 

“Heh, thanks.” The boy rubbed a finger under his nose. “By the way, you can just call me Naruto. No need to be all formal.”

Matsuko smiled, but her next words were interrupted when someone stopped beside their table. Looking up, Matsuko met the eyes of the brunette boy standing there. He had his hands in the front pocket of his dark blue hoodie and... _ was that _ ? A small, fluffy white head peeked out from underneath the collar of the boy’s hoodie and Matsuko gaped at the cute puppy. Was that even allowed? 

“This seat taken?” The boy asked, his dark eyes questioning. If the puppy wasn’t a dead giveaway, then the red fangs tattooed on his cheeks certainly were. He was an Inuzuka, the shinobi clan who fought strictly with their ninken partners. Matsuko had heard once that the Inuzuka even embodied some of the same personality traits that dogs did. 

“Ah, no.” Matsuko answered after an awkward moment. She nodded to the empty seat to her right, “all yours.”

“Thank god.” The brunette collapsed onto the bench and ran a hand through his short hair. “I really didn’t wanna to have to sit next to grabby hands up there.” 

Matsuko raised a brow and looked at the person the boy nodded his head at. A brown haired girl sat in the front row of the classroom. There was an open seat to her left and it was apparently the only other one available. 

“Grabby hands?” Naruto peeked over her shoulder in confusion. He seemed to have lost his slight timidness after she offered her companionship and Matsuko felt a little accomplished. 

“Yeah,” the brunette answered, slouching back against the bench. “She kept trying to pet Akamaru. Didn’t even ask, just reached over with her grubby little hands.” 

The puppy peeking out of his hoodie gave a bark of affirmation and Matsuko was a little confused. 

“Makes sense.” Matsuko said instead of asking. Maybe it was considered rude to pet a ninkin without asking? She had read before that ninkin were considered to be ninja as well and not just dogs. Matsuko would file that information away for later just in case.

“Yup. What’s your guy’s names anyway? Mine’s Kiba Inuzuka and this here is Akamaru.” The puppy, Akamaru, gave another bark at the introduction and Matsuko smiled. He was  _ so cute _ . She didn’t get to see a whole lot of dogs around the village, and she loved animals terribly. Maybe she could convince her brother to let her get a dog?

“Naruto Uzumaki!” The blonde next to her pointed a thumb into his chest. “And I’m gonna be the next Hokage, believe it!”

Matsuko blinked at the exclamation. He hadn’t mentioned that earlier and she turned to him without answering Kiba. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Naruto scratched his nose sheepishly, not quite sure how she would take the statement.

“Well, if you work hard, I’m sure you could be.” The grin on his face rivaled that of the sun gleaming through the window. 

“Heh, you’ll have to beat me first.” Kiba smirked over at the blonde, flashing them both a sharp fang. 

“You want to become Hokage too?” Matsuko asked, brow raised. What were the odds?

“Yup. So good luck with that, blondie.” 

“I’ll beat you, no biggie!” Naruto tried to shove his finger in Kiba’s face, but only accomplished in smacking Matsuko in the face. She sputtered and pushed his hand out of her face with a small huff. 

_ Ugh, boys. _

“Whatever you say.” Kiba shrugged and turned his dark eyes on Matsuko. His pupils were slitted, almost like a cat’s. “Hey, you never said what your name was.”

Matsuko interrupted whatever Naruto had been about to yell in her ear. “Matsuko Lee.” 

“Nice to meetcha.” Kiba grinned, revealing two sharp canines this time. He threw an arm over the back of the bench behind him and looked to the front of the classroom as the door slid open. 

Iruka-senei walked into the room, his eyes roving over each of the students. He strode over to a desk standing at the front of the classroom and dropped a stack of papers onto the surface. Turning back to the class, he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the chalkboard that took up half of the wall. 

“Good morning everyone.” Iruka began. “As you all already know, my name is Iruka-sensei. You may call me either Sensei, or Iruka-sensei, whichever you prefer. I will be your instructor for the foreseeable future.” 

Iruka paused before speaking again, staring them down.

“Some of you will not make it through the Academy and some of you may not even make it past this year. You should know that the path to becoming a shinobi of Konoha will not be as easy as you may have been lead to believe. Do not let this discourage you, but don’t take everything you learn here lightly either.”

Matsuko sat up a little straighter at the speech. She had known that the path to becoming a kunoichi wouldn’t be easy and had mentally prepared for the hardships. While some kids and civilians glorified the life of ninja, she knew that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. She would have to take a life eventually and even face the prospect of dying early. Matsuko didn’t know if she was ready to become a killer, but she knew that she would do whatever it took to keep her brother safe.

“I’m going to pass out the syllabus outlining everything that we will learn this year.” Iruka grabbed the pile of papers on his desk and began to distribute them to the rows of children. 

When the small stack was passed to Kiba from the boy in front of him, Matsuko scanned over her own sheet. Apparently they weren’t going to learn anything super invigorating during their first year. Rock Lee had only barely begun to have taijutsu spars in his own class. So she was going to have to wait a whole year to get to do those. At least all of the workouts with her brother would pay off by then.

The rest of the morning was spent going over the syllabus and other boring first day of school drivel. Matsuko had been bored out of her mind, the excitement and nervousness from earlier dissolving. She had thought that the first day of class would have been a little more exciting, but she had been proven wrong. Unfortunately.

Iruka had dragged the class outside to the back of the Academy about an hour before lunch. Matsuko hadn’t been back there before and she took in the big looping track and wide open field. She saw a swingset sitting off to the side of the yard shaded under a big tree and made a mental note to steal the spot for lunch. 

When Iruka had announced that the class had to run ten laps around the big track, Matsuko scoffed. After he had shouted at them to begin, she took to the track at a steady pace. Conditioning with her brother everyday for almost a year had made the run embarrassingly easy. Afterall, Rock Lee forced her to run at least a hundred laps around the village daily. She couldn’t do it all at once yet, since her small body just didn’t have the stamina. So she’d broken it down to run some in the morning with her brother and again in the evenings after he got out of the academy. 

As she ran, Matsuko passed all of the huffing students, not even breaking a sweat. She saw Naruto and Kiba occasionally, and they seemed to be locked in some sort of competition to finish first. Whatever weird rivalry they had developed had motivated them to push past her limits. Afterwards, Matsuko was pretty sure she saw them both lying out on the grass huffing and puffing with red faces drenched in sweat. Naruto had been breathlessly arguing with Kiba and claiming that he cheated in order to win. However, Matsuko knew otherwise. Since Kiba was raised in a shinobi clan, he had probably started ninja training years in advance. The fact that Naruto could just about keep up with him spoke of his sheer determination though. 

Some of the children almost collapsed in relief when Iruka announced that it was time for lunch. They had all gone back to the classroom to grab their bentos for lunch and Matsuko fished hers out of her backpack. Since her aunt didn’t know jack squat about both her and her brother’s enrollment (she still didn’t know how she wasn’t aware yet), they had to pack their own bentos. Neither Matsuko or her brother were very good cooks, so her lunch consisted of white rice and some beef that they had picked up from a restaurant in the market square. Matsuko wasn’t picky and would gladly eat almost anything, so eating the same leftovers from two days before didn’t bother her. 

Matsuko slid up next to Naruto when the class all emerged outside and stared down at his empty hands. He had either forgotten to pack a lunch or didn’t have one. Her eyes narrowed. 

“Where’s your lunch?” She asked, leaning forward to stare into his slowly blushing face.

“I don’t have one.” Naruto mumbled, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. Shrugging, Matsuko decided that it would probably be better if she didn’t pry. It wasn’t really any of her business anyway. 

“No big deal. We can share mine.” 

“No, it’s okay! I’m not that hungry.” His stomach suddenly growled. Loudly. Oh yeah, his face was definitely turning a dark shade of red now.

“Uh huh, yeah I’m sure.” Matsuko raised a disbelieving eyebrow. Her eyes scanned over the yard in search for the spot she had mentally claimed earlier. Sadly, the Academy split lunches between the different class years and she wouldn’t be able to eat with her brother. So she would just have to feed the starving boy next to her instead. 

Matsuko was way out of her comfort zone, but tried to push through it for the sake of her poor hands. She  _ would not _ run around the village like that again. She refused. And so she pushed away the introverted feelings bubbling at the surface and tried to channel her brother’s exuberant personality. 

Reaching down to grab the wrist of the boy next to her, she proceeded to drag him over to the big tree by the swingset. It was surprisingly empty of kids and she plopped down in the soft grass and scooted her back against the tree. When Naruto just continued to stand there awkwardly, she pointed to the spot next to her.

“Sit.”

The blonde sat down next to her and Matsuko popped open her bento and snapped the pair of chopsticks apart. She paused for a moment, a realization coming to her mind. She only had one pair of chopsticks since she didn’t exactly plan on sharing. There also wasn’t a whole lot of food packed, at least not enough to completely sustain both of them. Pursing her lips, she turned to the boy next to her. Naruto had that sad look in his eyes again as he stared out at all the other children and Matsuko narrowed her own. It was the same look her brother had at the beginning of the year and she couldn’t stand it. She may not be a people person or care much about anyone who wasn’t her brother, but something about the boy next to her pulled on her heartstrings. 

“I only have one pair of chopsticks.” Matsuko pushed the bento so that it sat in between them. “So we’ll just have to share. If you don’t like germs, too bad.”

Naruto stared at her with his mouth hanging slightly open. Matsuko rolled her eyes and shoved a bite of beef into his gaping mouth. He choked in surprise and Matsuko ignored him as she scooped up her own bite. She could hear him continuing to choke next to her as she chewed and she looked over at him in slight concern. Hopefully she hadn’t killed him. 

The blonde’s eyes watered from his vicious coughing, but he managed to swallow, his cheeks tinged pink. “Uh, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Matsuko passed the chopsticks over to him after deciding that maybe she shouldn’t try to cause his premature death. He took them from her, body leaned away from her as if in fear. 

Matsuko rolled her eyes. Naruto was almost as dramatic as her brother.  _ Almost. _

She looked up as a shadow fell over them and saw Kiba standing there with his own food. Akamaru had moved to sit on top of his head now and Matsuko took a moment to wonder at physics of that. Kiba collapsed onto the grass without hesitation and popped opened his bento.

“There you guys are. I was looking for you.” 

The three of them ate their lunch, the two boys spitting food everywhere when they started bickering. The two of them were very energetic and Matsuko was almost overwhelmed. She participated in the conversation at a more normal volume. However, once both lunches were clean of food, the two boys ran off to participate in a game of ninja that was just starting up. They had invited her to join but she’d shaken her head and pulled out a book instead. She had just gotten to a very interesting part of her chemistry book about the elemental properties of mercury.

The rest of the day after class was just as boring as the first half had been. They’d gotten released a few hours earlier than they normally would since it was only the first day. Iruka had sternly informed them that the days would be longer starting the next day, but the children had barely heard them as the gleefully escaped the classroom. Iruka had just sighed and slumped against his desk.

Matsuko, on the other hand, had decided not to try and force her way through the crowd and patiently waited for it to diminish. Naruto and Kiba had run off before her, their loud voices carrying over the excited babble in the hallways. When she finally reached the front yard, Matsuko scanned the crowd of kids and parents. The sun had fallen lower in the sky at that point and it wasn’t as hot as it had been earlier, to Matsuko’s great relief. A familiar head of dark hair caught her eye and she stood on her tiptoes and waved.

“Aniki!” 

Her older brother’s head jerked at the sound of his name. Once he caught sight of her, Rock Lee beamed and mowed down kids in his way in order to reach her. More than one dark glare was sent his way, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Matsuko-chan!” He pulled her into a bone crushing hug and Matsuko grunted in pain. It had only been a few hours, for Kami's sake! “How was your first day?”

Incoherent sounds passed her lips as she struggled to breathe and get free from his embrace. He finally let go and she huffed and gasped for air. “It was okay. Pretty boring.”

Rock Lee followed her as they made their way out of the Academy yard. He turned to her and gave her an encouraging thumbs-up. “Do not worry, I’m sure that things will become more exciting!” 

“Hopefully.” Matsuko muttered, walking around a very tall group of people. The two of them had made it out onto one of the main streets of Konoha and she glanced down as her sandals kicked up dirt. 

“Were you able to make any friends?” Rock Lee looked over at her hopefully. 

“Mm,” she failed to suppress a smile, “you could say that.” 

“I am so proud!” Her brother exclaimed, happy tears running down his face. Matsuko grimaced at the sight and looked away. “I knew that you could do it!” 

If she was being honest, Matsuko was just glad that she wouldn’t have to run around the village like an idiot. Although the thought of those two boys did make her smile. Maybe making friends wasn’t as bad as she’d thought. 

“Off to training then?” 

“Yosh! We will begin with fifty laps around the village! If we cannot run fifty laps, then we will do three hundred jump ropes!”

She slumped. Looked like she wasn’t going to get out of running after all. Great.


	6. Application

**Chapter Six**

Application

 

It was raining. 

Matsuko could feel the cold water seeping into her clothes, her hair, her skin. It washed the sweat from her brow and the mud caked to her feet. Her arms and legs were frozen in a ready stance, toes squelching against the open-toed material of her shoes. Body weighed down with wet clothes, she momentarily regretted wearing an outfit so loose. She had swapped her normal pair of black leggings for a baggy pair of blue pants. Her long sleeved sweater clung to her arms and she wished for a moment that she had thought to tie down the loose ends with badges. At least she’d had the forethought to tie her hair up into a ponytail. WIth a sigh, she squinted her eyes against the torrential downfall and stared down her opponent. 

Rock Lee stood facing her ten feet away, limbs locked in the same position as hers. His long black hair stuck to his neck and back like a second skin, rain soaking his clothes. He had shed his outer coat and it hung over the lowest branch of a tree somewhere behind him. Dressed in only a quarter-sleeved grey shirt and black pants, goosebumps covered his flesh. Inhaling deeply through his nose, his determined eyes locked onto hers and then he  _ moved _ .

Rock Lee darted across the clearing and his right arm shot out. Matsuko ducked under the jab, paying close attention to his hands. Her own fist darted out to punch his ribs, but he smacked her hand away, the slap echoing into the rain. Matsuko ignored the slight sting and threw a kick towards his face, sending an arc of mud into the air. Her brother didn’t move in time and her foot connected to the side of his face. His head jerked and he stumbled backwards, feet sliding against the mud.

Matsuko followed, fist snapping out towards his jaw. Rock Lee recovered just in time to block, his arms shooting up to defend his face. Her fist bounced off his skin and she didn’t have time to move before his knee jerked up to connect to her ribs. The air left her lungs in a  _ whoosh _ and her body folded in half like a lawn chair. Blinking against the pain, her brother followed up with another knee towards her face. Reflexes built from months of training had her bringing her hands up to block her face. Her brother’s knee cracked into her palms and she rapidly sent her fist into his torso. 

It connected and her brother grunted at the blow. Eager to prevent his countermove, Matsuko staggered backwards out of his reach. Her haggard breath puffed into the cold air and she winced, holding a hand to her ribs. Her brother hit  _ hard _ . And he wasn’t even that skilled yet. He was going to be a terrible little monster one day, she could see it, and Matsuko pitied any fool who would try to fight him. Blinking the stinging rain out of her eyes, she moved, feet dancing across the wet ground. 

Matsuko came at him with another kick, but this time he expected it and ducked underneath. Her continued momentum gave Rock Lee the opening he needed and he crouched, leg sliding out to strike into the back of her supporting leg.  

Grunting, Matsuko collapsed into the ground below, her head smacking into the mud. She lay there for a moment, the cold from the ground seeping into her body. Well, that had been a ridiculously short fight. She and her brother had only just started sparring against each other a few weeks ago and neither of them were very good. Rock Lee had taught her some of the moves and katas that he’d learned at the Academy and they had decided to put it to some use. Since he’d already begun his taijutsu spars in class, he’d mentioned that he desperately needed to up his game. Her brother wasn’t great at taijutsu and she was even worse. Granted, neither of them really had a teacher outside of what Rock Lee learned in class. But Matsuko hoped that they would get better, otherwise her brother wouldn’t make it very far as a taijutsu specialist. And she refused to let that happen. 

“Ow,” Matsuko groaned, reaching up a hand to rub the back of her throbbing head. She wasn’t very surprised that she had lost. They may be just beginners, but her brother still had a little more experience at fighting than her. 

“Are you alright, Matsuko-chan?” Rock Lee frantically questioned, hand shooting out to help her up. She grunted from her position on the ground and took his hand.

“I’m fine, you worrywart.” Matsuko waved his concern away and glanced down at her mud caked clothes in disgust. Why they had to fight in the rain, she had no clue. Squinting into the dark, she glanced up at the sky. “it’s getting pretty late though. We should probably head home before we catch a cold or something.” 

Her brother easily agreed and ran over to grab his coat from the tree branch. Normally they would do cool down stretches after their workouts, but it was just too damn cold outside and she was wet and miserable. They would just have to do it at home. The two of them had been training for the past few hours and Matsuko was tired. After morning training, a long day of classes at the Academy, and evening training, she just wanted to go home and collapse into her warm bed. She looked down at herself again, arms held pointedly away from her body.

_ ‘Well, maybe after a shower first _ .’

That reminded her. 

When Rock Lee appeared back at her side, she jabbed a cold finger into his face. “First one home gets dibs on the shower!” 

Matsuko took off before her brother even had a chance to process her words, feet flying. She managed to reach the treeline before his indignant shout reached her ears. Cackling, she tore into the forest, hopping over fallen logs and puddles of rain. She could hear her brother gaining on her and she reinforced her muscles with chakra, pumping her legs faster. 

The clearing that they trained in was semi-deep into the forest of trees surrounding the inside of the village. They had been there enough times that she could find her way home perfectly fine in the dark. Her sandals pounded the earth, the quick steps of her brother not far behind. She ducked and weaved her way through the trees before bursting out onto the small dirt path leading to the training grounds. 

She didn’t pause before darting to the left, passing under the occasional streetlamp. Her feet carried her onto one of the big roads of the village, the streets almost completely empty of people. If she looked up, she would have been able to see the occasional passing of a ninja on the rooftops, either going about their day or heading out on missions. The path that she was on looped around the outskirts of the village and she ran between buildings to pop out onto the main street of Konoha. Matsuko’s feet skid against the paved road as she passed the lit restaurants and shops of downtown. The warm aroma of food drifted past her nose and she inhaled deeply. A lot of the restaurants downtown were owned by the Akimichi clan, and boy could they  _ cook _ ! Matsuko would kill for one of their meals. 

Heart beating a tattoo into her chest, she chanced a look behind her and let out a very undignified “eep!” Rock Lee had caught up to her now and they were racing shoulder to shoulder. She could hear his paced breathing and grunted, pushing more chakra into her legs. Squinting into the dimly lit streets, she could just see their apartment building in the distance. It sat smack dab in between the residential area and downtown section of the village. Matsuko liked to think that they had one of the best spots to live in: close to everything, but far enough away to not be disturbed by the loud nightlife. 

Matsuko and her brother both arrived at the door to their apartment building at the same time, shoes sliding against the wet pavement. Both of their hands snapped out to grab the door handle at the same time and they turned, eyes shining with determination. She loved her brother dearly, but she was just as competitive as he was. And while Rock Lee was a total sweetheart, he didn’t like to lose. 

They stayed like that for a moment, both playfully glaring at the other in a silent duel, shoulders shoving against each other for dominance. Matsuko smirked before throwing her whole body weight into her brother’s shoulder and shoved him to the side. He smashed into the building wall next to him and Matsuko took that as her chance. He may have been older than her, but she was taller than him. Rock Lee would probably shoot up in a few years and dwarf her, but for now she would take any advantage she could. 

Matsuko tore the door open before her brother could recover from her surprise attack and raced up the stairs. They lived on the third floor and Matsuko mentally cursed the amount of stairs she had to climb.

“Matsuko-chan!” Her brother’s voice called up after her, his feet racing up the stairs right behind her. “That is cheating!”

‘ _ How did he catch up so fast?! _ ’ __

Matsuko knew that he didn’t really care that she’d rudely shoved him into a wall, and she lunged to touch her fingertips to their front door. Turning to her brother, who had just caught up to her, she grinned and stuck out her tongue.

“Hah! I get to shower first.” 

 

Matsuko emerged from the bathroom, a cloud of steam rolling out into the hallway. She had thrown on her comfiest pajamas: a loose pair of dark green shorts and an oversized orange shirt. Her dark hair hung over her shoulders, bangs plastered to her forehead, and Matsuko marveled at how long it was getting. The ends of her hair now reached the middle of her back and she fingered a strand. She’d always loved long hair and didn’t plan on cutting it until she absolutely had to. 

“All yours.” She called down the hall to her brother. He had been patiently waiting on a towel by the front door, not wanting to drag mud all throughout the house. At her call, he raced to take her spot and sent her a grateful thumbs-up before shutting the door in her face. Well then.

Shuffling her slippered feet across the hall, Matsuko pushed open the door to their bedroom. Surprisingly, their aunt was home, holed up in her own room with the lights off. Matsuko figured that she’d had a long day at work and didn’t want to accidentally wake her and bring about her wrath. That woman was hellish when woken up. 

Matsuko gently closed the door behind her. While she was in the shower, a theory had shoved itself to the forefront of her mind she wanted to test it. Reaching under her mattress, she pulled out her black leather journal and walked the few short steps to the desk she shared with her brother. Matsuko slid out one of the drawers and plucked out a thin piece of white chalk. She had stolen it from her classroom at the Academy after it had emptied for lunch. She might have felt guilty for stealing, but she was training to become a ninja after all. Wasn’t that pretty much their philosophy? 

Items in hand, Matsuko sat down in the middle of the room, bare legs pressed against the cool wood. She flipped open the journal and stopped at the page she was looking for. Neatly written notes spread out across two pages in black ink. Matsuko had been wanting to test out her alchemy theory and she was getting way too impatient to wait. It had been bothering her for quite some time, and while she was in the shower, she decided to just wing it. Once something piqued her interest or she set her mind to something, she couldn’t let it go. Matsuko figured that had to be some kind of genetic family trait since her brother was the most stubborn person she knew. 

Matsuko cocked her head to the side and strained her ears to make sure that her brother was still in the shower. She could faintly hear the water running and took that as her chance. She didn’t want to test anything out with her brother in the room in case something went wrong. Since blowing up family was pretty frowned upon. 

Matsuko stared hard at the pages in the journal before grasping the piece of white chalk in her fingers. Releasing a steady exhale, she touched the tip of the chalk to the wooden floor beneath her and traced out a neat, steady circle. Matsuko had been practicing for weeks in order to be able to draw a perfect circle and she smiled down at her success. From what she had gathered, any reaction that she wanted to take place would only occur within that base circle, unless she modified it to signify something different. But she didn’t want to mess around with something so difficult yet. She barely even knew what she was doing now. 

Next, she drew a square inside the circle, taking special care to keep the lines straight. The purpose of the square was primarily used for transmuting rock or wood into an object like a statue or some other solid form. Which was exactly what she was aiming for. The quiet  _ tap, tap, tap _ of chalk against wood soothed her nerves as she drew a diamond inside of the square. The diamond shape was used for the same purpose as the square and combining the two together would make a more precise, stronger reaction. 

Leaning back on her haunches, Matsuko tilted her head and stared down at the transmutation circle. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears and closed her eyes to steady her breathing. She was nervous as  _ hell _ . Not just because she could possibly kill herself or lose a hand if it went wrong, but because she was afraid of what it would mean if it worked. It would bring up too many questions that she didn’t have the answer to and she was afraid of the unknown. That fear was one of the main reasons why she liked science so much. It answered questions about things that people couldn’t understand. There was always a reason- an answer- and all you had to do was figure it out. If alchemy was real, if her bizarre dreams meant something, she wasn’t so sure if she would be able to solve that mystery. 

Matsuko lightly slapped her cheeks to pull herself out of her thoughts, unknowingly smudging chalk on her face. Screw it, she had to know. Matsuko dropped the chalk onto the floor beside her and leaned forward on her knees. She reached out her hands to hover above the circle and took a deep breath. 

It was now or never.

Matsuko nodded to herself in encouragement, closed her eyes, and slapped her hands down onto the transmutation circle to activate it before she could change her mind. 

Nothing happened.

Her eyes blinked open in confusion. ‘ _ What? _ ’

The chalk lines stared back at her as if mocking her failure. What had she done wrong? She had drawn everything that she thought she needed to. The reaction should be taking place, but for some reason it wasn’t. 

‘ _ Lines, check. _ ’ Matsuko narrowed her eyes at the wood floor. ‘ _ I’m using the floor as my material, so that’s all there. So then what…? _ ’ 

Matsuko groaned out loud and smacked a palm to her forehead, unknowingly leaving another smudge of chalk. Kami, she was so _ stupid _ . Of course she wouldn’t get a reaction without a proper power source. You could put a pot of water on a stove and stare at it all you wanted, but it wouldn’t boil without heat. So just drawing lines on the floor wouldn’t do jack squat. She didn’t know what the hell she was supposed to use to power it, but she had a theory. Chakra was conductive, right? 

Shaking her head at her own stupidity, Matsuko leaned forward again and placed her hands back on the circle. She closed her eyes and focused, and using the same techniques from her chakra control exercises, she tugged at the warm energy at her core. Breathing slowly in concentration, she guided the chakra up through her torso and down her arms, warmth spreading through her body. 

The second that her chakra hit her hands, the transmutation circle grabbed the energy and  _ yanked _ . It didn’t hurt, but it still felt weird and  Matsuko let out an involuntary gasp of surprise. She could feel her chakra spread out across the circle, powering it up. Her eyes widened when the room lit up in a blue, almost white glow. A gentle wind exploded out from the transmutation circle, caressing her damp hair. 

It was  _ working _ !

“Matsuko-chan, what are you doing?” 

Startled, Matsuko let out a high pitched squeal, whipping her head around to the open bedroom door. Rock Lee stood in the doorway, a white towel on his head and his dirty clothes clutched to his chest. His jaw dropped as he stared wide-eyed at the flaring lightshow going on in the center of the room.

“Uh, it’s not what it looks like, I swear!” Matsuko squeaked. “But hurry up and close the door!” 

The sound of snapping wood drew her attention and her head whipped back to the transmutation circle. The floor encased in the circle cracked into small spider-web like fractures and she gulped. She heard the door slam behind her, but couldn’t drag her eyes away to look. 

“Ah, shit,” the curse left her mouth in a whisper as the floor started to cave inwards. “That’s not supposed to happen!”

“Matsuko-chan, language!” Rock Lee reprimanded automatically. He always hated it when she cursed. Something about it being improper or whatever. Matsuko ignored him and jerked her hands away from the circle as if burnt. She hadn’t been quick enough however, because apparently the transmutation circle had gotten all the chakra from her that it needed in order to finish whatever the hell it was doing. 

Instead of the wood pulling upwards into the shape of a small bird like she had wanted, the floor split open. Matsuko winced at the loud **_crack_** that resonated in the room. The floor beneath them shook violently and Rock Lee dropped the clothes in his hand to hastily grab her underneath her arms and haul her backwards. They watched, wide eyed as with one last pathetic _snap_ , the floor encased in the circle imploaded. 

Matsuko gaped at the large hole now sitting in the middle of their bedroom. “That wasn’t supposed to happen…”

Rock Lee looked like someone had smacked him upside the head with a fish. The towel that had been neatly on his head now sat askew, some of his hair sticking up like he’d been electrocuted. 

“ _ What the hell?! _ ” The masculine scream definitely hadn’t come from either of them and Matsuko hurriedly pulled herself out of her brother’s frozen grasp. Skittering forward on her hands and knees, she cautiously poked her head down to peer into the hole. 

Staring back up at her was a very startled looking family of four. Two children sat at a dining room table, both gawking at the pile of crumpled wood sticking out of what used to be a very yummy looking hot pot. A woman, clothed in a very pretty yellow dress and white apron, gaped up at Matsuko, spoon frozen halfway to her mouth. A man, who Matsuko assumed to be the woman’s husband, had shot out of his chair in surprise sometime after their ceiling had exploded. His chair was knocked over behind him and the choked off sounds coming from his mouth didn’t sound anything remotely like words. 

Rock Lee poked his head over from beside her and stared down at the family like he wasn’t sure what planet he was on anymore. Matsuko cringed, not quite knowing what to say. 

‘ _ I mean, what is one supposed to say when they accidentally blow a whole into someone’s ceiling? _ ’ 

“S-sorry about that!” Matsuko winced. The spoon the woman had been holding to her mouth slipped from her hand and into her bowl, sending food splashing onto her white apron. 

It was a good thing that her downstairs neighbors were civilian, because if they were shinobi, Matsuko would have probably gotten a face full of kunai. At least it hadn’t blown up in her face. The situation couldn’t possibly get any worse than that, right?

The door to their bedroom burst open so hard that the doorknob imbedded itself into the wall. Matsuko and her brother stared in fear at their fuming aunt standing in the hallway. Her dark hair was a rat’s nest around her head and the left side of her cheek was tattooed with pillow marks. Nanoko’s narrowed eyes glared them down and Matsuko’s heart stopped. 

“Shit.” 

“Matsuko-chan, language!” 

Coal eyes met obsidian in a silent staredown. No one had moved to be the first one to speak within the last five minutes and Rock Lee was starting to get uncomfortable. He had never been very good with silence. Or with sitting still for very long. Or with dealing with angry situations. Matsuko sat on the edge of her chair, back straight and eyes narrowed. Her aunt sat across from them at the dining room table, silently fuming. 

She had dragged the two of them out of their room by their ears and forced them into a seat at the table. Nanoko’s glare did nothing to affect Matsuko, but her brother hunched down with his hands clasped in his lap. Rock Lee had always been the more sensitive one out of the two and Matsuko wasn’t going to let her so called “aunt” upset him. She may have been the more reserved one, but she would be damned if she let anyone hurt her brother. Her overprotectiveness kicked in and her anger sparked, just waiting for the right moment to ignite. 

“So the two of you enrolled yourselves into the Academy, then?” Nanoko finally opened her mouth to speak. Not only was she pissed about the hole in the floor, but she’d almost lost it when the two of them had admitted to enrolling into the Academy. 

“Yeah, and?” Matsuko questioned, attitude clawing to the surface. 

“Watch your mouth.” Her aunt snapped angrily. “You are under my roof and you will show some respect.” 

Matsuko normally wouldn’t behave so rudely towards an adult because her brother would have an aneurysm, but she had absolutely no respect for the woman sitting in front of her. When she didn’t answer, her aunt’s mouth pinched in anger. 

“Insolent child! How dare you.” Nanoko shoved her finger in Matsuko’s face. Her eyes narrowed and she barely stopped herself from slapping it away. “I asked a question and I expect for it to be answered, you brat.”

“Do not speak to Matsuko-chan in that manner.” Rock Lee spoke up from Matsuko’s side. She glanced over to see him glaring at their aunt, eyes sparked in anger. Her brother was not quick to anger at all. In fact, she’d only ever seen him get mad once when some boy pushed her down in the park a few years ago. 

“You two want to play at being ninja? Fine. I don’t care. But don’t expect any sympathy from me when you end up dead just like that pathetic father of yours.” Nanoko spat, mouth turned down in disgust. 

“What the hell is your problem?” Matsuko yelled. She shot out of her chair, hands clenched into fists at her side. She was  _ angry _ . How dare she? All of that just because she and her brother had enrolled at the Academy? She was way out of line. “Stop trying to act like you care.”

“What’s my problem?” Nanoko tisked. “My problem is you. I never wanted to take you brats in, but I did anyway. Not for you, but for your mother. And this is how you want to repay me?”

Nanoko paused for a moment and leaned back in her chair, shaking her head. “She’s dead because she decided to fall in love with someone who couldn’t even protect her when it mattered! Shinobi are weak and always will be. And she’d be ashamed if she were here to see you two go down that path. She gave up her life for you and you’re just going to throw it back in her face by dying young. Pathetic.”

Matsuko clenched her jaw, hands shaking. She opened her mouth to speak, but her brother beat her to it.

“I do not believe that.” Rock Lee stood from his chair. His voice was quiet, but his eyes were hardened onyx. “I think that she would be proud. Matsuko-chan and I are going to become strong enough to protect not only ourselves, but the people most precious to us. Our mother fell in love with our father knowing what he was. I think that this is what she would have wanted. We will not let their legacy die.”

Their aunt was silent as Rock Lee met her gaze unflinchingly. Matsuko’s lips twitched in a proud smile and she reached over to grab her brother’s hand. She had never seen him so serious, not even when they trained. His eyes flickered to her and he squeezed her hand in reassurance. Her brother may be unnecessarily kind, but he could be fierce when he wanted to be. 

After a long moment, Nanoko stood up with a shrug, staring at the two of them with a detached gaze. “Fine, do what you want. But since you want to make decisions like adults, then I’ll treat you like one. When you graduate-  _ if _ you graduate- you’ll be considered as adults by Konoha law.”

The woman’s dark eyes were unsympathetic as she blandly stated, “then you’ll be on your own. Don’t expect any help from me. Don’t expect any money from me. Don’t contact me at all.”

Nanoko didn’t give them a chance to respond. She turned on her heel and disappeared down the short hallway to her room. The sound of her door shutting punctuated her statement with finality.

Matsuko scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Not like we need her anyway. Right, aniki?”

She turned to her brother, but he was still staring at their aunt’s empty chair, expression uncharacteristically serious. Eyebrows pinched, she tugged gently on his hand. Rock Lee seemed to snap out of whatever serious thoughts he was having and he gave her hand a quick squeeze.

“Right.” 

“Cheer up.” Matsuko poked his cheek. When he turned to look at her, she shoved a thumbs up in his face. “Forget about her, we can take care of ourselves.”

A pause, and then, “besides, I need your help to figure out how the hell we’re going to fix that hole in the floor.”

She laughed when he jerked back in surprise, eyes wide. Seemingly back to his normal self, he gaped at her.

“You forgot about that huh?”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “The mystical practice of alchemy to create objects out of raw matter or turn one object into another is widely believed to be capable of anything - indeed alchemy is often viewed as magical or miraculous by those unfamiliar with the craft - but it is a science and as such is subject to certain laws and limitations, all of which fall under the concept of equivalent exchange.”


	7. Theories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “A transmutation circle is a conduit which focuses and dictates the flow of power, tapping into the energies that already exist within the earth and matter. It represents the cyclical flow of the world's energies and phenomena and turns that power into manipulable ends.”

**Chapter Seven**

Theories

 

 

Naruto stared.

And stared.

And  _ stared. _

“Ugh, just take it!” Matsuko scowled, cheeks pink. She waved the bento in the blonde’s face, willing him to take it. When he failed to reach out and grab it, she huffed and shoved it into his chest. Naruto squawked and was forced to juggle it before it tumbled into the grass at his feet. Grumbling from embarrassment, Matsuko stomped off to go grab a spot under their usual tree.

“H-hey, wait up!” 

Matsuko ignored the blond’s flustered response and plopped down onto the warm grass of the Academy yard. She’d noticed during the first few weeks at the Academy that Naruto never brought his own lunch and assumed that her previous assumptions about the boy not having anyone to look after him were correct. He never talked about his home life or any family and Matsuko paid strict attention to the way that the other children and adults acted around him. They seemed to react negatively in his presence and attacked with pointed glares and sharp words. Matsuko couldn’t for the life of her understand why.

Naruto was a nice boy, if a bit rambunctious and loud, but that didn’t deserve those looks of hatred. She’d even noticed that Iruka-sensei was more cold towards the boy than he was towards any other student. Matsuko wasn’t necessarily one to stick her nose into anyone else’s business, but it was a case she wanted to solve. Plus, she always hated that depressed look he got on his face when he thought nobody was looking. 

“Matsuko, you didn’t have to-” 

Matsuko glanced up from where she was unpacking her lunch and shot Naruto an unimpressed look. He shifted from foot to foot in front of her sheepishly, seemingly cowed by her expression. “I wanted to. Besides, this way we can both eat lunch without worrying about being hungry in an hour since we don’t have to share just one. My brother and I aren’t the best cooks, so it probably won’t taste all that great, but it’s better than starving.” 

“I bet it tastes great, believe it!” Naruto sat down next to her gracelessly and opened his bento, cracking his chopsticks and shoving food into his mouth at an inhuman pace. 

Matsuko grimaced in distaste and took a bite of her own food like a normal human being would. She chewed for a moment and tried not to make a face at the flavors coating her tongue. What she’d said wasn’t a lie. Neither she nor her brother could cook very well and it definitely showed. Since Matsuko’d wanted to keep the theft of her aunt’s money to a minimum since the  _ incident _ , she and her brother had started to cook their own food instead of ordering takeout. Her aunt was at least kind enough to  _ graciously _ buy groceries, but somehow always seemed to “forget” to cook for anyone but herself. 

Ever since their heartwarming talk three months ago, their aunt was around less than she had been before, if that were even possible. She would leave for work early in the morning sometime during Matsuko and her brother’s workout and wouldn’t come home until well into the night. Matsuko didn’t know where she was or what she was doing and she didn’t really care. As long as the spiteful woman was out of her life, she would be happy. The last time she had even seen the woman was the day after Matsuko accidentally blew a hole into the floor, and that was only to be in the apartment when the landlord got there. Apparently damages to the apartments weren’t totally uncommon due to overpowered superhumans called shinobi, and the landlord had repaired the damage easily. 

Matsuko still wasn’t sure what to think about the fact that her alchemy had even worked in the first place. Sure, she might have miscalculated the correct layout of the transmutation circle, but it had worked nonetheless. When her brother had asked her about the incident, she’d admitted to wanting to test out a scientific theory. Rock Lee had taken it without question, but politely asked her not to blow up their apartment anymore. He was curious about how she’d done it and Matsuko had tried to explain, but she was absolutely terrible at teaching things to people. Which was probably why her brother always took charge of their workouts.

Alchemy apparently didn’t exist in Konoha, at least not from what she knew. Shinobi closely guarded their secrets afterall. Which had led her to another hypothesis. Could anyone activate a transmutation circle with chakra? She wasn’t sure, but she wanted to find out. Her eyes shifted over to her blond companion. She also wouldn't mind spending some more time with her friend so, two birds-one stone and all that jazz. 

“Hey Naruto?” Matsuko interrupted one of his many ramblings. Kiba was out sick that day, so the two of them were alone that afternoon. 

“Hm?” Naruto hummed around a mouthful of food. His big, blue eyes stared up at her from his hunched over position and she noticed that he’d almost cleaned out the whole bento. Maybe she and her older brother were better cooks than she thought? Matsuko glanced down at her own half-full lunch and mentally cringed. Nah, definitely not. 

“What do you have planned for tonight?” She asked, knocking back her canteen of water to try and wash the overly salty taste out of her mouth. Rock Lee always got a little too trigger happy with seasonings.

“Uh, I’ll probably just hang out at home. Or something.” Naruto finished lamely and dropped his chopsticks into the now empty container in front of him. “Why?”

“You wanna come over to my place for dinner? My brother and I have training right after class lets out, but you could come by later tonight if you wanted.” 

Matsuko was a little nervous if she was being perfectly honest. Yes, Naruto was her friend, (her best friend, she’d admit at this point), but she’d never invited someone over to her apartment before. What if he said no? She looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

“The food won’t be that great, but you could meet my brother and-”

“I’d love to!” Naruto all but screamed next to her. He was grinning from ear to ear with a bright, happy glint in his eyes. Matsuko smiled and nodded her head at his easy acceptance.

“Alright. Come by around 8pm or so.” Matsuko paused and tapped her chin in thought, muttering to herself. “That should give us enough time to shower and start cooking. We’ll have to cut training a little short, but big brother will deal.”

“I’ll be there! Believe it!” 

“I look forward to it, Naruto.” And she did. He was her first ever friend after all.

* * *

“Aniki, that’s too much garlic!” Matsuko screamed at her brother, diving across the small kitchen island to snatch up Rock Lee’s shirt. She tried to wrench him back away from the stove, but that only made things worse. Matsuko watched with wide, frightful eyes as if in slow motion, the container of garlic in her brother’s hands went flying out of his grasp and the lid popped off in midair. 

“No! Grab it!” Her scream came too late and the container fell right into the skillet and upended itself into the half-cooked stir fry. Matsuko froze with one hand outstretched as if she could somehow still catch it. Her mouth opened and closed with no sound coming out and after a moment, she turned a glare to her brother. “Why were you using garlic? The recipe doesn’t even call for it!” 

Matsuko picked up the heavy cookbook on the kitchen island and waved it in his face. Rock Lee turned to her sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. “Sorry, Matsuko-chan. I thought we were supposed to add it.” 

Rolling her eyes, Matsuko dropped the book back onto the island and rounded it to gently prod her brother away from the stove. She pointed to the other pot on the burner with an exasperated look at her aniki. “You’re not allowed to touch the stir fry since you might accidentally poison it. And I don’t want to kill Naruto, so you’re on noodle duty.” 

Rock Lee punched the air in front of him in ready acceptance, not at all deterred by the small disaster. “Yosh! I will not let you down. If I cannot cook these noodles to perfection, then I shall do eight hundred jumping jacks!”

Matsuko sweatdropped and shuffled away from the aura of fierce determination coming from her brother, shifting her attention back to the food on the stove. The two of them were attempting   to cook a simple dish of Yaki Udon, but they were managing to screw even that up. Matsuko assumed that she and her brother had somehow managed to anger some kind of food Kami and now everything they cooked turned out horribly. 

She wasn’t mad at her brother, not at all. She was just nervous about inviting over her first ever friend. Matsuko knew that Naruto would eat literally anything put in front of him (except maybe vegetables), but she didn’t want to turn him off from ever coming back. She had to make sure he didn’t starve, afterall. Especially since she feared that they only thing the boy ever ate was instant ramen, and that certainly couldn’t be healthy.

Matsuko grimaced as she tried to spoon out as much of the garlic as possible. Most of it had already dissolved into the pork and vegetables and she decided to write it off as a lost cause. Hopefully Naruto liked garlic.

“I am sure that he will not be deterred!” Rock Lee placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and shoved a thumbs up in her face. He always managed to pick up on her moods like it was nothing. They were so close to each other that they could read each other’s thoughts and feelings like an open book. “Anyone would be lucky to have a friend like you, so do not worry so much little sister.” 

Matsuko deflated and patted her brother’s hand in silent thanks. Normally she wasn’t so self-conscious and didn’t care much about what other people thought. However, she was slightly worried about chasing off her first friend. Pouting, Matsuko shot her brother a small smile. “I guess you’re right. I’m worrying for nothing.” 

“Exactly!” Rock Lee gave her one of his bright smiles and shuffled forward to lift the lid off the big pot of noodles. Steam engulfed his face and his dark eyes watered at the contact before widening. His head turned to stare at her warily. “Ah, Matsuko-chan, should the noodles be turning this color?”

Alarmed, Matsuko jerked forward to lean over her brother’s shoulder. Her mouth dropped at the sight of black, crispy noodles floating in the boiling water. “How did they  _ burn _ ? In water?!” 

It was safe to say that the rest of the food preparation didn’t turn out too great. Both Matsuko and her brother had managed to ruin one of the simplest dishes to make and had to throw it all out. It was beyond the point of being edible and Matsuko glared down at the styrofoam cups sitting innocently on the kitchen counter. She didn’t want to tempt fate twice in one day, so she and Rock Lee pulled out the only easy-to-make, edible food they had. 

“Naruto’s going to love this.” She muttered darkly to herself. Matsuko could hear Rock Lee in the living room behind her completing his eight hundred jumping jacks as “penance” for burning the noodles. 

She’d tried to insist that it wasn’t his fault and was in fact, simply their bad luck. But he wouldn’t take no for an answer and so she’d just shrugged at him and let him continue. She would have joined him, but she’d had to find  _ something _ to feed their guest. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knocking at the front door and she blinked before stumbling her way over to it. 

“I will heat these up!” Her brother called out to her retreating back, apparently done with his exercise, and she waved a hand behind her in silent agreement. That was fast.

Matsuko wrenched open the door and blinked at the mass of green that suddenly engulfed her vision. Shifting her gaze over the top of a potted cactus, she met the blue eyes of Naruto. He’d changed out of the bright orange shirt and pants he was wearing earlier. Now he wore an orange (surprise) and blue hoodie and dark pants with his usual pair of big, mad scientist-like goggles wrapped around his forehead. Matsuko still didn’t know why he wore those, but it suited him, she supposed. 

“Hey,” she greeted, eyeing the pointy looking cactus warily. Naruto could be a total klutz sometimes and she feared for her imminent safety. 

“Sorry I’m a little late,” Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before extending the cactus to her. “I stopped to buy this as a thank you gift. For inviting me.” 

Matsuko’s eyes softened and she took the plant from the boy. It was common courtesy to bring some kind of gift, no matter how small, to give to the hosts of a dinner invitation. It was normally reserved for the more traditional and formal types of invitations, but Matsuko didn’t mind the thoughtful gift. 

“Thanks.” She grinned and stepped back to hold the door open. “Come in. You can put your shoes wherever.” 

“Something smells good.” Naruto brushed past her into the genkan to slip off his sandals and Matsuko sweatdropped at the comment. She shut the door and turned to dig around inside the small entryway closet for communal pair of house shoes. They normally didn’t have visitors, but her aunt always kept some around for some reason.

Rock Lee rounded the wall separating the entryway and the kitchen and Matsuko gestured between the two boys awkwardly with the hand not holding a cactus. “Aniki, this is Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto, this is my brother Rock Lee.” 

“It is nice to meet a dear friend of my little sister!” Rock Lee exclaimed, jumping forward to excitedly shake Naruto’s hand. He always preferred handshakes over customary bowing for some reason and Matsuko liked to think that he had too much personality for a simple, stiff bow. “I have heard very much about you!” 

Matsuko interrupted before Naruto could respond, stepping past her brother towards the kitchen. She turned her head before disappearing around the corner and stated cheekily, “aniki ruined dinner, so I hope you don’t mind having instant ramen instead.”

Rock Lee squawked at her ruthless accusation and Naruto gave an excited whoop. “My favorite!” 

Matsuko was glad that they had a small stockpile of instant ramen in their kitchen. She wasn’t the biggest fan of it and neither was her brother, but sometimes they ate it out of pure necessity. It was either that, or starve,  _ or _ eat whatever inedible concoction they drafted up in the kitchen. However, Naruto had no problem eating his way through three containers on his own. Matsuko had seen the longing expression that the blond had shot at his initial empty cup of ramen and forced two more containers down his throat. Well, “forced” was probably the wrong word since he scarfed down the food rather excitedly. 

It didn’t surprise Matsuko at all that her brother and Naruto got along so well. They were both pretty similar in personality traits and had no problem talking (more like shouting) animatedly to each other across the table. Matsuko had just shaken her head at their boisterous antics fondly. The atmosphere never got awkward and she thanked her luck at having such a kind and accepting brother. She could probably bring a random stranger in off the streets and Rock Lee would accept them with open arms. 

Matsuko had stood up from the table at one point while the two boys were engaged in conversation to momentarily retreat into her room. She emerged a few moments later with her journal and chalk in her hand. Naruto was in the middle of retelling the most recent prank he’d pulled on Iruka.

“-and he picked it right up and bit into it! You shoulda seen his face when he got a mouth full of shaving cream instead of red bean paste. And he calls himself a ninja? Hah, priceless!” 

“Wow! How did you manage to get him to eat it?” Rock Lee asked in awe. He leaned across the table to gape at the blond and Naruto grinned devilishly. 

“I stuck a note on it saying that it was from a secret admirer. What a sap!”

“Yeah, and I had to stay back and help you clean the classroom for hours because Iruka-sensei accused me of helping you.” Matsuko pouted, coming to stand next to the dining room table. 

“But you did help me!” Naruto exclaimed and Matsuko looked pointedly away from her brother’s stare, whistling innocently. 

‘ _ Wow, such an interesting ceiling _ .’ She thought, eyes steadily on the white ceiling above her. 

“Is that why you were late to meet me for training last week?” Rock Lee asked his sister. When she didn’t answer, he blinked before pointing at her accusingly. “You told me that you were staying behind to ask your sensei about that afternoon’s lesson and that I should start without you!”

“Huh?” Matsuko feigned confusion and looked at her brother like he was crazy. “What are you talking about?”

Rock Lee gaped like a fish and Matsuko forced down the smile twitching at her lips. Her brother was so fun to mess with sometimes. She turned her attention to Naruto and held up her leather journal. “Naruto? I was hoping that you could help me with something.” 

“Sure! What is it?” The blond readily accepted and Matsuko sweatdropped at his exuberance. 

“Well, I kinda wanted to test out a theory that I have. It’s pretty simple actually, I just need you to touch something with your chakra to see if it will work for you.” 

“If what will work for me?” Naruto asked in confusion. 

They had gone over chakra at the Academy at the beginning of the month. Iruka hadn’t taught them a whole lot, since they wouldn’t learn the jutsu’s needed to graduate until their third year. He had, however, taken them out into the yard after lunch and instead of their usual classes, Iruka showed them how to access their chakra. It had been boring and slow going as the whole class sat in the sun for hours and meditated to find their chakra. Some of the kids found theirs pretty quickly and Matsuko was one of them. After all of the chakra control exercises that she had done the year prior, it was pretty simple for her. 

Naruto, however, had been absent that day. Afterwards he’d confided in her that he’d had to go talk to the third Hokage about his chakra instead of learning about it in class like everyone else. Matsuko had been surprised at first to learn that he was actually quite close with the Hokage, but she was glad that he had other people in his life to care for him too. He deserved it. Apparently the Hokage told him that he had  _ too much _ chakra, and learning chakra control was going to be almost impossible for him. And it showed in class when Iruka would have them sit in the yard and practice sticking leaves to their foreheads. Naruto would always end up shredding his to pieces. 

“Well,” Matsuko mentally shook herself out of her thoughts and held up her chalk. “It’d probably be easier if I just showed you.”

“Matsuko-chan…,” Rock Lee eyed the piece of chalk in her hand warily. She hadn’t attempted alchemy again since the  _ incident  _ months ago, and she’d taken the time to figure out what it was that she’d done wrong. When she found out the problem, she’d almost bashed her head through the wall at her own idiocy. 

“Don’t worry, aniki.” Matsuko grinned cheekily at her brother. “I know what I’m doing this time.”

Rock Lee shifted slightly away from her in his chair, but gave her a thumbs-up anyway. She pretended that she didn’t notice the wary enthusiasm. He may have been cautious and a little bit sceptical, but he believed in her anyway and she loved him for it. 

“Just please do not cause any more damage to the apartment.” 

“You blow up a floor  _ once _ ,” Matsuko mumbled to herself and rounded the table to sit at the head of it in between the two boys. She set down her supplies and reached out her arms to sweep the mess of empty containers and chopsticks to the other side of the table. 

“Blow up?” Naruto asked wide-eyed. She also pretended to ignore the sudden excited gleam in his eyes. 

Shifting the skinny piece of chalk in her hand, she flipped through a few pages of her journal. Matsuko didn’t really need to reference it at this point since she had made sure to memorize the simple transmutation circle, but she kept it open just in case. Touching the tip of the chalk to the wooden surface of the table, she began to draw a perfect circle. Then she added another circle inside of the first one. That was what she had failed to include the first time. 

The pointed edges of a square extended out of the second circle and touched the lines of the first one. And then inside of that square, she drew a diamond, taking special care to keep it strictly inside both the square and second circle. When she had first attempted to create that specific transmutation circle, she never added the second circle and that was why it had impoaded into itself. 

Both the square and the diamond, used for easily manipulating wood and rock, had overpowered each other and caused a destabilization of the floor’s matter. The extra circle that she added would essentially be like a wall separating the energy from the square and diamond. It would ensure that they wouldn’t overpower each other by setting one off before the other instead of both at the same time. 

Matsuko sat back in her chair and dropped the chalk next to her journal and took a moment to survey the transmutation circle before nodding to herself. It was perfect. 

“What’s that supposed to be?” Naruto leaned his elbows onto the table and leaned forward to prod a finger at the chalk lines. 

“Wait, don’t touch yet!” Matsuko warned and moved his hand away. “It’s...a scientific experiment.” 

“What for?” His blue eyes stared up at her with that gleam back in his eyes. “Is it gonna blow up?”

“No.” Matsuko facepalmed, unknowingly leaving a chalk imprint on her forehead. But then she paused and pursed her lips. “At least, it shouldn’t. I think.” 

Rock Lee not so subtly scooted his chair so far back from the table that he was almost in the living room. Matsuko shot him an unimpressed look, but her brother just shot her a double thumbs-up and encouraging grin. Even though he was so far away, she knew that if anything were to go wrong that he would rush in and pull her out again. So she rolled her eyes good naturedly. 

“Alright, Naruto.” Matsuko clapped her hands at the sudden rush of excitement. “Remember the chakra control exercises we learned in class? How to reach in and draw it out?” 

“Of course I do!” Naruto thumped his fist against his chest confidently. 

“Okay. Now I just need you to place your hands on the edge of the outer circle--no don’t smudge the chalk! Okay, good. Now just feed chakra into it. You’ll be able to tell if it’s working.” 

Naruto’s face scrunched up in concentration and Matsuko watched the transmutation circle intently. After a few minutes of nothing happening, she pouted.

“Are you feeding your chakra into it?” 

“Yeah. Is something supposed to be happening right now?” Naruto’s attention was starting to wane. Matsuko knew that he didn’t like to sit still for very long and she frowned down at the transmutation circle. Why wasn’t it working?

“Let me try.”

Matsuko gently waved Naruto’s hands away and he withdrew them without complaint. She laid her hands onto the outer circle and closed her eyes to concentrate. Her chakra came to her easily and she guided it down her arms and into her hands, holding her breath. Perhaps the first time had been a fluke? 

The transmutation circle grabbed at her chakra greedily. Matsuko’s eyes snapped open and resisted the urge to squeak in surprise. It had felt weird the first time and now was no different. She heard a “whoa” from Naruto as the transmutation circle lit up in blue, almost white, light. The sound of static electricity reverberated into the room and the surface of the table encased in the circle  _ moved _ . 

Matsuko didn’t notice Rock Lee move to stand beside her, too busy gaping at the pulse of energy she felt humming under her hands. The wooden surface moved, slithering like a snake, but didn’t do anything other than that. Matsuko frowned. Why wasn’t it taking the shape of a small bird like she’d wanted it to? She could still feel the connection from the transmutation circle and her own body, but wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do now. 

Maybe if she tried to direct it…?

Brow pinched in concentration, Matsuko fed another flicker of chakra into the transmutation circle. When it didn’t immediately snatch at it, she pushed it towards the writhing mass of wood. She attempted to direct the atoms of the wood into shifting shape and almost pulled back her hands in surprise when it  _ listened _ . 

The manipulated wood danced as it constricted and she guided it to take shape. The end result looked sloppy, but when the light faded, she withdrew her hands in awe. 

“Holy shit. It worked!” 

“Matsuko-chan, language.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She hastily waved off her brother’s polite scolding, mind still focused on what lay in front of her. The surface of the table had extended up to form a small, grotesque statue of a bird. It wasn’t perfect and the details were horrid enough to scare a small child, but Matsuko didn’t care. It had  _ worked _ ! 

Leaning back into her chair, Matsuko closed her eyes, deep in thought. ‘ _So the transmutation circle is more like an outline or a list of instructions telling the atoms what to do._ _But I have to guide it into what I want?_ ’

It made sense, in a way. She could draw up a transmutation circle to construct or deconstruct wood into changing its shape, but it wouldn’t do anything in particular unless she manipulated it into what she wanted. But then why couldn’t Naruto do it? He may not be good at chakra control, but she believed him when he said he was doing it. What was so different about her?

She would ask her brother to try, just to eliminate another probability, but immediately tossed out the thought since it was difficult for him his call upon chakra. Maybe she should ask someone else? But who else did she trust besides the two sitting next to her? Kiba, perhaps, but she didn’t know him as well as she did Naruto. Kiba tended to do his own thing sometimes.

“-llo?” The feeling of something poking roughly into her shoulder drew her out of her thoughts. Blinking, she turned to the blond next to her as he continued to dig his finger into her flesh. “HELLO?!

Matsuko flinched away from Naruto and rubbed at her now ringing ear. “You didn’t have to yell, jeez.”

“Heh, heh, sorry.” Naruto withdrew his finger. “But you weren’t responding. I thought you died or something.” 

“I was just deep in thought.” She rolled her eyes, turning to shoot a smug look at Rock Lee. He had that look on his face again- like someone had slapped him upside the head with a fish- as he gawked at the table. “See, I told you it wouldn’t blow up.”

Her brother simply blinked down at her for a moment before he jumped and flashed her the most excited smile she’d ever received from him. “Yes, you were correct! I knew you could do it, Matsuko-chan! I am very proud.” 

Matsuko grinned back at him and punched the air in excitement. She was absolutely euphoric. The possibilities of alchemy seemed endless to her now and she vowed to spend as much time pouring over the subject as she possibly could. There wasn’t any information on alchemy outside of her notes though, so she’d just have to wing it.

“Hey,” Naruto piped up, laying a hand on his stomach, “I’m hungry again.”

“What? How? You just ate!” 

“Matsuko-chaaan, I want more ramen!”

“Naruto, adding the honorific to my name isn’t going to make me feed you any more ramen!”

“But I’m hungry!”

“No, you need to eat something healthier!” 

“But all you have is instant ramen!”

“Wha-? Hey, don’t go through other people’s kitchen cabinets, it’s rude!”

As she fought to tug the container of instant ramen out of Naruto’s hands, she checked family dinner off as a success with hope for many more to come.


	8. Plausible Deniability

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Inside transmutation circles are specific alchemical runes. These runes vary widely based on ancient alchemical studies, texts, and experimentation, but correspond to a different form of energy, allowing the energy that is focused within the circle to be released in the way most conducive to the alchemist's desired effect.'

**Chapter Eight**

Plausible Deniability

 

 

"I can't do this."

"I do not think-!"

"No...I give up."

"But-"

"Just leave me here to _die_. I can't live through this pain anymore."

"You must-"

"Go on without me. I'll catch up in a minute."

A sigh. Then, "Matsuko-chan, you must at least get out of the middle of the road."

She merely grunted in response and refused to move an inch. The light from a streetlamp nearby chased the shadows out from behind her closed eyelids, but she couldn't even lift an arm to shield her face. Matsuko's whole body burned; from the air trying to get into her lungs to the strained muscles in her legs. She could feel the grains of dirt from the road beneath her digging into her bare arms, but she refused to move from her position sprawled out in the middle of the empty street.

Matsuko's breath wheezed out from between her lips as she struggled to breathe through her ragged panting. Sweat slid down the side of her face, silently dripping into the dirt and she shivered when a warm breeze caressed her face and damp hair. She poked out her tongue to wet her dry lips and grimaced in disgust when she tasted the salt clinging to her skin.

"You're...such a...slavedriver." Matsuko hissed between gasps of air. "Why did you...have to add...more laps?"

The light from behind her closed eyelids darkened as she heard the shuffling of sandals against the dirt as her brother moved to stand next to her. "Because we must get stronger and this is how we do it!"

She wasn't angry at the exercise or her brother, not really. She just needed to take a moment to catch her breath and rest her tired limbs. Matsuko groaned in response before opening her tired eyes to peer up at Rock Lee's face hovering above her. He was bent at the waist to inspect her sprawled out form, lips parted to greedily suck up her oxygen. A noise of disgust sounded at the back of her throat when a drop of sweat trickled down her brother's face and landed in her already damp hair.

"Gross! You're all sweaty!" She threw up her shaking arm to push his face away. Her hand pressed into forehead as she lightly shoved his head out of her personal bubble.

"We only have ten more laps to go, Matsuko-chan! If we cannot finish, then we shall do four hundr-"

"Alright, alright!" Matsuko interrupted, legs scrambling underneath her as she pushed her way to her feet. She ignored her brother's answering grin and huffed out a tired breath. Rock Lee knew that the most successful way to motivate her was to threaten her with more exercise and she shook her head at his secretly observant brain.

Her muscles protested and she quietly cursed herself for letting them get stiff. Matsuko wobbled in place and took a moment to find her balance before turning to her brother. His black shirt stuck to him like glue, the cotton material completely drenched. Rock Lee's hair was a sweaty mess and pieces of it fell out from his braid and plastered to his damp face.

Matsuko wasn't any better off and she silently thanked herself for choosing to wear a tank top instead of a long sleeve shirt like she usually did. Her dark hair was thrown up in a sloppy bun atop her head and she pushed her bangs away from her face with a shaky hand. She brushed the grains of dirt sticking to the backs of her arms and inhaled deeply to try and settle her rapidly racing heart. The air was heavy with moisture and Matsuko closed her eyes at the scent of warm earth mixed with the sweet and salty perfume of water. It was going to rain soon.

"Let's finish these laps so we can go home." She opened her eyes to gaze up at the night sky, the full moon peeking out from behind thick, puffy clouds. The lights from the village made it difficult to see the stars and Matsuko sighed through her nose and tore her eyes away from the view.

She and he brother had been out training since the early afternoon and she was ready to take a shower and crash. Matsuko had a love/hate relationship with the weekend because while she wouldn't have to sit through boring Academy lectures, she and Rock Lee dedicated their free afternoons to strength and stamina training instead.

"Yosh! That is the spirit!"

Matsuko snorted at the exclamation before taking off down the road at a steady jog. "Yeah, yeah. Let's go, slavedriver."

Rock Lee caught up to her and they ran through the streets in companionable silence. When they hit the main road that cut through the downtown district, Matsuko let her eyes wander from their brightly lit path to a group of people stumbling out the door to a bar. Their drunken voices echoed around them as one of the girls tripped over her own feet and landed on all fours on the ground. Her companions burst into roaring laughter and her giggles rose to join them as she struggled to her feet.

The downtown district of Konoha was normally pretty busy during the weekends as both civilians and shinobi alike ventured out to destress from their hectic weeks. The bars and restaurants tended to stay open pretty late, even on weekends, and that night was no different. Matsuko and her brother veered around the people in their path, ignoring curious stares, until they finally turned off downtown's main street. It wasn't until they hit a road on the outskirts of the village that they heard it.

An alarm pierced through the quiet of the night, startling a flock of birds hiding in the trees in the surrounding darkness.

It started off low and raised to a high pitched screech before cutting off rapidly and repeating. Matsuko and Rock Lee skidded to a halt so fast that the dirt beneath their sandals kicked up clouds of dust.

"What the hell is that?" Matsuko breathed out, eyes wide as her head jerked to stare into the darkness around them. Her breathing came out in quick gasps as she struggled to catch her breath, body tensing when the alarm continued to sound. "What's happening?"

"I do not know." Rock Lee stiffened next to her, his own dark eyes locked onto the speaker attached to a building a little behind them. "That is the alarm for jonin and above to report to the Hokage tower."

Konoha's alarm system was taught during the first month at the Academy. Iruka had drilled it into Matsuko's class's skulls until they could memorize and recognize each and every type. A long, lower pitched alarm indicated for genin and above to report to the Hokage tower for instructions and for civilians to lock themselves indoors. A short, medium pitch one called for chunin and above while all genin and civilians took shelter. The quick low-to-high pitched alarm that was currently blaring through the village signaled for all jonin and higher to report to the tower and for everyone else to seek immediate shelter.

"We need to get home." Matsuko whispered, exchanging an alarmed look with her brother. "Now."

His eyes narrowed as he nodded in uncharacteristic seriousness. Reaching out an arm to point at an alleyway a few streets down he stated, "that way is the shortest route back. It will take us through the main streets, but it is the quickest."

"Alright," Matsuko agreed quickly, feet already moving towards the entrance of the alley, "let's hurry."

They ran shoulder to shoulder through the alley and out into the next street, feet pounding into the ground below. Matsuko and Rock Lee were still about a mile out from their apartment building and she really hoped that whatever caused the alarm wouldn't intercept them on their way.

The streets that had been lazily littered with people minutes before now stood empty. Matsuko glanced up as she ran, her eyes catching the quickened shadows of shinobi above as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop towards the Hokage tower. The tall red building, also attached to the Academy, was positioned at the back of the village in front of the Hokage monument. There was only one main road that stretched from the village gates to the tower and Matsuko and her brother were about to cross through it.

Thankfully, they didn't run into anyone once they hit the main street and Matsuko let out the breath she'd been holding. Further down the road, she could see a few civilians scrambling to reach the safety of their homes. The village alarms hadn't sounded since Matsuko was a baby, not that she would have remembered that. It had been years since Konoha had fallen under attack and the fear and tension in the air was so thick that Matsuko could almost taste it.

"Almost there." Matsuko whispered breathlessly as they passed the hospital. They were only a street away from hitting the downtown district. From there all they had to do was hang a left and continue running until they passed the Aburame clan compound and hit the residential district the next street over.

The bars and restaurants in the downtown district had emptied and the silence that surrounded them put Matsuko on edge. The alarm echoed off the buildings and through the deserted street like one of those horror movies that Rock Lee had made her watch once. Anxiety bubbled to the surface of her frazzled nerves and she clenched her jaw.

It was pure instincts that saved them.

Matsuko skidded to a stop, grabbed a passing Rock Lee by the arm and roughly dove for the ground behind a wall to a closed shop. Her brother squeaked in shock as he landed on her sideways, his pointy elbows digging into her ribs. Matsuko hissed quietly at the pain of both his sharp limbs and the hard wall behind her. She slapped her hand over his mouth when he opened it to speak and shook her head at his questioning eyes. Matsuko lifter her finger to her lips to signal for him to be quiet and she pressed herself back against the building.

She pushed her other hand against her own mouth to muffle her heavy breathing slipping out from between her lips. Sweat dripped into her eyes and she clenched them closed against the sting. Matsuko took a deep, silent breath before opening them again, not daring to remove either of her hands to wipe away the moisture. Heart pounding in her ears, Matsuko turned her head as slowly as possible and peaked around the edge of the building.

Her dark eyes narrowed on the cloaked figure a few stores down. They were walking away from where she and her brother hid at a leisurely pace, as if they hadn't a care in the world. The metallic tang of blood hit her nose in a wave and panic bloomed in her chest. She didn't know who they were or what they were doing, but the feeling in her gut and the scent of blood gave her enough incentive to not move.

Rock Lee shifted his weight and Matsuko bit back the pained noise that tried to escape her throat as his elbow dug even further into her ribs. Tearing her gaze away from the cloaked figure, she jerked her head back to glare at her brother. He stopped moving at her narrowed eyes and sent her what she perceived to be an apologetic look. Matsuko pushed her hand harder against his mouth in a silent warning before daring to look back around the building.

Sweat dripped into her eyes again, but she didn't dare blink them away. The person had stopped walking and Matsuko felt her heart stop in her chest when they slowly turned their head in her direction. Breath stalled in her throat, Matsuko snapped her head back around and pressed it against the wall behind her. Her hands were shaking now and she could feel Rock Lee's stare boring into the side of her face. She was glad that he'd been able to sense the fear radiating off her body and didn't move an inch.

Matsuko waited with bated breath, wide eyes staring into the darkened trees surrounding the walls of the Aburame compound. She felt helpless. Scared. _Weak_. If that person wanted to kill her and her brother then and there, there would be nothing she could do to stop it.

They waited, seconds slowly ticking into minutes as they sat pressed up against the wall. She waited a few more minutes before, body still shaking, she peeled the hand away from both of their mouths and clenched a fist into her brother's damp shirt. Matsuko could feel his warm breath on her arm and she took a quivering breath before slowly, _achingly_ , looking around the edge of the wall again.

The breath left her lungs like a deflated balloon, muscles unclenching and eyes closing in relief. Whoever it was that had been standing there was gone. Matsuko buried her face into Rock Lee's shoulder as she took deep breaths to calm her frantic heartbeat. They were safe. They were going to be _okay_.

"What are you kids doing here?"

The scream that tore from Matsuko's throat pierced through the still blaring alarm. Her hands grabbed onto her brother as Rock Lee jumped at the sudden voice from behind him. She could feel his whole body tense up and she jerked her head back from his shoulder only to accidentally bash it into the wall behind her so hard that stars swam in her vision.

She whimpered in both pain and fear as she lifted her gaze to the figure standing in front of her. Her next scream died in her throat as her eyes traveled up and she failed to compute the information being sent to her brain. Rock Lee tore himself out of her grip and turned around, fists raised, to confront the man standing in front of them.

' _Wow, that's a lot of green,'_ was the only thing that she could think at the moment. Blinking rapidly from the pain in her head, Matsuko's eyes landed on the Konoha hitai-ate tied around the man's waist. Her tensed muscles relaxed immediately and she leaned bonelessly against the wall.

"You two shouldn't be out here, it's dangerous!"

Rock Lee said something from next to her, but Matsuko didn't hear a word he'd said. The shock of the situation finally seemed to catch up with her and she couldn't stop shaking. The man in front of them crouched down, leaning in to speak lowly to her. His words swam in her ears, muffled like she was underwater. When she didn't respond, the man said something to her brother before scooping her up into his arms.

Matsuko's hands reflexively fisted into his unnecessarily tight jumpsuit as the man reached out and lifted Rock Lee in his other arm like a sack of potatoes. She didn't even have a moment to prepare herself before the man launched off the ground and landed on the roof of the building they had hid behind. Matsuko's stomach dropped when he took off running, legs clearing the distance between buildings easily. She clenched her eyes shut as the sensation mixed with the numbness of shock and she took deep breaths to dispel the anxiety crawling in her gut.

The journey home was a blur. It could have taken hours, or just _seconds_ , Matsuko wasn't sure. Nor did she really care. One second her eyes were closed, and in the next moment her feet were being gently placed on the dingy grey carpet of the interior of her apartment building. The artificial lighting from the cheap ceiling panels above made her squint her eyes at the impending headache.

"You kids going to be alright?"

Matsuko finally let her gaze travel up to meet the dark eyes of their savior. He was looking down at them in concern, but she could see tell that he was slightly distracted. The man's dark hair was styled into a bowl cut and the obnoxiously green jumpsuit he wore stuck to his body like a second skin. The surprise from his strange appearance somehow managed to cut through the shock in her body and she blinked up at him before nodding.

Taking that as a good enough answer, the man sent them a sparkling grin so bright that Matsuko was blinded for a moment. "Good! Make sure to stay inside and lock the door behind you!"

"Ah-" Matsuko didn't get a chance to respond before the man leapt onto the metal railing of the staircase.

"Thank you, shinobi-san!" Rock Lee shouted from next to her, stars shining in his eyes.

The man turned back to send them a double thumbs up and another bright grin. "Not a problem. Make sure to be more careful next time!"

Before either of them could respond, the man dropped down from the railing through the center of the staircase, disappearing from view. Matsuko shook her head at the display, the shock starting to wear off. Reaching out a hand, she grasped the calloused fingers of her brother and turned towards their apartment door.

"Let's...go inside."

* * *

It wasn't until two days later that she found out why the village had gone into lockdown.

Matsuko slid the door to the classroom open and stepped inside, eyes already scanning the rows of tables and benches. A flash of blond caught her attention and she moved towards the staircase before pausing at the bottom when her eyes scanned the rest of the row that Naruto sat in. Seated to the left of him, pressing herself as far into the window as she possibly could, was a pink haired girl. The girl's jade eyes were looking anywhere but at the blond sitting next to her.

Matsuko's dark eyes trailed over to where Kiba was seated in the aisle seat next to Naruto. The two of them exchanged an eyeroll and Matsuko continued up the stairs. A few weeks ago Naruto had confessed to her that he harbored a _huge_ crush on the pink haired girl, Sakura. Kiba had overheard their conversation with his annoyingly good hearing and teased Naruto about it relentlessly, not that it did anything to thwart the blond's feelings.

Personally, Matsuko didn't exactly see what appealed to him about the girl. Sure, she had a cute face and pretty green eyes, but her obnoxious personality grated on her nerves. At the beginning of the year Sakura had been a quiet, shy girl. However after being taken into the nurturing arms of Ino Yamanaka, the girl's shy personality morphed to mirror Ino's.

Not that Matsuko had a problem with Ino in particular, she had been nice to her at the beginning of the year afterall. She just wasn't a huge fan of the blonde girl's overly dominating personality. Now that their first year at the Academy was coming to a close, Matsuko couldn't help but silently pray that Naruto would get over his crush during the month long break. Sakura very obviously disliked him and Matsuko didn't want her to hurt his feelings because it would be a shame to have to break her slim nose.

"Matsuko! You're late!" Naruto's loud voice boomed over the chatter in the classroom and Matsuko ignored the irritated looks sent his way. He pointed at her accusingly and she huffed out an amused breath. How that boy was always so energetic in the mornings, she had no clue.

"Your brother kick your ass again?" Kiba smirked up at her as she finally reached their row. Rolling her eyes, Matsuko lifted a hand to scratch behind Akamaru's soft, fluffy ears. The puppy nuzzled into her hand with a happy bark and she couldn't help the smile that tilted at the corner of her lips. Kiba had (finally) given her permission to pet Akamaru whenever she wanted sometime during the middle of the Academy year. He'd told her once that touching an Inuzuka's ninkin partner without permission was a huge offence that his clan didn't take lightly. It'd caused fights before between the Inuzuka and the rest of Konoha's populace, though not very often, and was mostly caused by civilian born shinobi who weren't aware of the offensive gesture.

"I'll have you know that I won this morning's spar, thank you very much." Matsuko stuck her tongue out childishly and Kiba snorted.

"Yeah? Well you look like shit." He pointed a finger at the giant bruise on her cheek and Matsuko swatted his hand away from her face.

"Gee, thanks for the confidence boost." Matsuko rolled her eyes.

"No problem," came his cheeky reply.

Matsuko's dark eyes slid over to where Naruto was already distracted by trying to pull an annoyed Sakura into conversation. The pink haired girl was probably upset that he'd boxed her in and sat himself next to her. Shaking her head in exasperation, Matsuko continued up the steps to the row behind her two friends. She slid into the open middle seat without hesitation and dropped her bag onto the table.

"Morning, Shikamaru-kun." Matsuko greeted the dark haired boy seated next to her. He was hunched over on the bench with his head buried in his arms, dark eyes closed and chest moving with slow breaths. She got a sleepy grunt in response to her greeting as she dug around in her bag for the materials she'd need for the day.

Matsuko had met Shikamaru Nara a little after Naruto developed his crush on Sakura. The blond had thrown himself into the seat next to the pinkette much like he had that morning, and Kiba had stolen the other empty seat. When Matsuko had arrived to class only to find out that her normal spot had been taken, she'd glared at her best friend and when he didn't seem phased by it, she'd moved her angry gaze to Kiba. He'd just shrugged at her and told her to get there earlier if she wanted a seat.

She hadn't been angry that Naruto had unintentionally discluded her, but at the fact that she'd have to sit next to someone she didn't know. After becoming friends with Naruto and Kiba, she didn't feel the need to make any more. Why would she? And so, she'd been forced to take the empty aisle seat the next row up beside the napping Nara. The spiky haired boy hadn't even flinched at the intrusion, though she did get a curious glance from his companion, Choji Akimichi.

Surprisingly, she got along well with the two boys and she took a liking to how calm and quiet they were. Matsuko fit in with the Nara and Akimichi due to her own preference of peaceful silence. And after she'd sat with them a few times, Choji had kindly invited her to go cloud watching with them during lunch. She'd taken up his offer and now joined them occasionally whenever Naruto and Kiba ran off to play with the other kids. Matsuko had even started to sit with the two of them during class without being forced from her usual seat in between Naruto and Kiba.

' _Speaking of,_ ' Matsuko thought as she dropped her bag onto the floor under the table. She turned to look at the sleepy Nara. "Where's Choji-kun?"

Shikamaru didn't bother to turn in her direction, choosing instead to crack open a groggy eyelid and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. When he spoke, his voice was muffled from his head being shoved between his arms. "He stopped to help his mom this morning. Should be here soon."

"Ah." Matsuko nodded at his response. Choji's family, like almost all of the Akimichi, owned a restaurant down in the shopping district. She'd gone a few times with the two boys and Choji sometimes helped out his mother by picking up whatever supplies she needed from the early morning market.

"Stop screaming in my ear!"

"But Sakura-chan!"

Matsuko ignored the loud voices of the two in front of her and turned her attention back to Shikamaru. "Hey, do you know why the alarm went off two days ago? I haven't been able to figure it out."

Shikamaru opened his eyes again and lifted his head to fully stare at her. "You mean you don't know?"

"Don't know what?" She asked, eyebrow raised at the tone in his voice. Shikamaru rarely sounded serious. "What happened?"

He paused for a moment before leaning in close to her. His mouth was a thin line when he spoke in a low voice, "the Uchiha clan was massacred. All of them are dead."

Matsuko's eyes widened at the news, mouth parted in shock. " _What_? All of them?"

"Well, not all of them." His dark eyes looked around the room briefly before settling back on her. "Sasuke Uchiha was the only one left alive."

"Who..," she trailed off, the rest of the sentence stuck in her throat.

"They're saying it was Itachi Uchiha." Shikamaru answered her unasked question. "Apparently he managed to escape the village over the south west part of the wall. Dad was pulled into the office all weekend and I only just got to talk to him this morning. He didn't tell me anything other than that, but Itachi Uchiha's a nukenin now."

Leaning back against the bench at his words, Matsuko looked around the classroom for the head of dark hair that she knew belonged to Sasuke Uchiha. When her eyes failed to find him, she couldn't help but feel a huge wave of sympathy hit her. Though she'd never spoken to him before, she couldn't help but want to give him a hug. She couldn't even imagine what he must have been going though. His whole clan... _murdered_ by his older brother. She didn't know any other Uchiha besides Sasuke, but she knew that they'd been a big part of the village.

Matsuko's throat constricted painfully at the thought of losing her own brother and she had to stop herself from thinking too hard on it. She shook her head slowly before a thought hit her. Matsuko's eyes shot over to Shikamaru only to see him resting his head back on the table, the conversation over. His words ran through her mind over and over as she picked them apart. Mouth suddenly going dry, Matsuko collapsed bonelessly into the back of the bench.

' _If Itachi Uchiha escaped over the wall to the south west...then why did we run into that man in the north east?_ '

The question repeated in her brain like a loop, not even stopping when Choji slid into the seat next to her. Not even when Iruka walked into the room and called for attention to start the day. She wanted to know. _Needed_ to know.

Who the _hell_ was that man in the orange mask?

The question lingered all throughout class, but she'd managed to push it to the back of her mind. Matsuko wouldn't forget, but it was pointless to dwell on something she couldn't currently look into. She hadn't brought up her concerns to Shikamaru and didn't plan on it, not unless she was given a reason to. Sure his father was the jonin commander, but she doubted he would share what was probably very classified information to his eight year old son.

Matsuko was pulled out of her thoughts when a bag of chips was suddenly shoved under her nose. Blinking, she leaned back to get some space before reaching into the plastic bag and pulling one out. She turned to smile at Choji in silent thanks and stuck the whole thing in her mouth. Being offered food by an Akimichi was hard to come by and also one of their ways of showing you that they viewed you as a friend. Choji had only started offering her chips a week ago and she'd been surprisingly elated at the success of making a new friend.

The soft _pitter-patter_ of rain hitting the classroom windows made her muscles relax and she tuned into the conversation going on around her. Since it was raining, lunch was being held inside the classroom and Matsuko grimaced at the noise. It was like a wild zoo in there. Cooping up children into one classroom was just asking for disaster. Iruka had quickly fled the room after giving them strict instructions to behave, not that the kids would listen anyway. The poor man shouldn't be surprised when he came back from the teacher's lounge to find the classroom half destroyed.

"-the whole thing is just stupid." Naruto whined from the row in front of her. Sakura had practically thrown herself over the table the moment lunch began and was now sitting at the front of the classroom with Ino and their other friends. Naruto had taken up her previous spot and sat with his back leaned against the window. The bento on the table next to him was emptied of food except for a small pile of vegetables pushed into the corner of the container. Matsuko felt her eyes narrow at the sight. She'd been trying to forcibly feed him something, _anything_ , healthier than his normal diet of ramen and, well, _ramen_.

"What's stupid?" She asked, lifting a bite of rice to her mouth. Naruto pouted up at her and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Haven't you been paying attention, Matsuko- _chaaan_?"

"Maybe if you actually studied, you wouldn't be worried about the stupid exam," Kiba scolded through a mouthful of some type of meat. Matsuko scrunched her nose in disgust when a few chewed up pieces of food flew out and landed on the bench between the two.

"I _tried_ ," Naruto groaned. "But it's just so damn boring!"

"And who's fault is that?"

"Shut up, dog breath!"

"What did you say?!"

"Wait," Matsuko spoke, interrupting the impending argument. Shikamaru had picked his head up from the table next to her was sending a withering glare at the bickering loudmouths for interrupting his nap. "You guys are talking about the end of the year exam?"

At the end of every year at the Academy, an exam was given on everything that had been taught. If anyone failed, then they'd be sent back to repeat the beginning of the year and the exam was only two weeks away. Matsuko wasn't worried about it since she found the material they'd learned that year to be pretty easy. She wouldn't go as far as to say she was a genius like a certain Nara, she just simply studied the material that was given to her.

"Naruto's gonna fail," Kiba piped up around another mouthful of food. Naruto squawked at the insult and jabbed a finger in the Inuzuka's face.

"You take that back!"

Matsuko frowned, watching as the two boys got into a shoving match. She knew that Naruto wasn't stupid, he just had a difficult time paying attention in class. He'd confided in her a while ago that it wasn't his first year at the Academy. Naruto had been placed into first year when he was only six for some reason, and had been unable to pass ever since. Now that he was almost eight years old, his confidence was faltering. He was terrified that he was going to get held back again and that he'd have the only friends he'd ever made torn away from him.

A _crunch_ interrupted her thoughts and she turned her gaze to the right of her. Choji was happily munching on another bag of chips, but she could see a spark of dark emotion in his eyes. She pursed her lips and leaned in closer to him in order to be heard over the loud bickering of Naruto and Kiba. She swore that those two fought like an old married couple.

"What about you, Choji-kun?" His questioning dark eyes flickered to hers and she elaborated kindly. "Are you ready for the exam?"

Choji shoved a handful of chips into his mouth instead of answering, the swirling tattoos on his cheeks bulging from the food. He didn't like to talk about it, but Matsuko had seen the scores of his last few quizzes and was a little worried. Choji swallowed the food in his mouth loudly before finally answering her. She had to lean in a little farther in order to hear what he said.

"A little."

"Hmm." Matsuko leaned back and turned her head to exchange a subtle look with a now awake Shikamaru. Choji was his best friend and he didn't want him to fail and Matsuko didn't want him to either. Her eyes looked over the boys around her in contemplation. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the look of deep thought on her face and she ignored it.

"I'm not gonna fail, believe it!" Naruto shouted at Kiba, arms flailing.

"You sure about that?"

"I don't remember asking you, dog breath!"

"Stop calling me that!"

Matsuko chewed on her thumbnail, blank eyes staring off into space as she thought. A plan was slowly forming in her mind and she stared at each of the boys one more time before nodding to herself. Leaning forward, Matsuko placed her arms on the table in front of her and cleared her throat.

"Naruto." The blond turned his attention to her and his eyes immediately brightened at the look on her face. A mischievous grin slowly crept up at the corners of his mouth and Matsuko smirked. "You're not going to fail."

"What are you planning?" Naruto threw an arm up onto her table and leaned forward, wiggling his eyebrows. It was rare that Matsuko got involved with his pranks and he couldn't help but get excited at the matching mischievous glint in her eyes. Whenever she combined her brain power with his creative ideas, the pranks that they pulled together were _beautiful_.

"I have an idea." Matsuko's smirk widened when the attention of the boys landed solely on her. She slowly met each of their eyes before stating, "it's pretty risky and it's going to take all of us to pull it off."

"I'm in." Kiba blurted, flashing his fangs with a grin. He was just as bad as Naruto was when it came to pulling pranks or breaking rules.

"You haven't even heard what I'm going to say." Matsuko deadpanned at his easy agreement.

"Don't have to." The boy shrugged and she rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Well? What is it? Spit it out already!" Naruto was propped up on his bench on his knees now, his head hovering inches away from her arms.

"Let me get to it!" Matsuko huffed and cleared her throat again.

She paused, silently amused at the anticipation on their faces. Even Shikamaru looked interested, which was a feat in and of itself. Naruto let out an impatient noise and Matsuko struggled to keep the serious look on her face.

"We're going to pull off a heist."

"A...heist?" Naruto spoke the word slowly, tongue testing out the syllables.

"Mhm," Matsuko hummed in agreement.

"What kind of heist?" Shikamaru asked as he propped up his chin on the palm of his hand. He looked bored, but the glint in his eye told her otherwise. Good, she was going to need him.

Leaning forward even more, she shot a quick assessing glance around the room to make sure that no one was paying them any attention. When she found nothing, she murmured to her companions in a low voice.

"We're gonna steal the test answers."

* * *

It was dark.

The only sound to be heard above the calming silence of night was the soft chirping of crickets and the occasional hoot of a spotted owl. It was well into the night and darkness blanketed the night sky. The small sliver of a crescent moon was hidden behind clouds, almost invisible to the naked eye, and the air was warm with the sweet scent of budding flowers and blooming cherry blossoms.

It was a peaceful night.

" _Ow!_ Hey, that's my foot!"

Matsuko sighed as the yell resounded across the empty Academy yard. Why she'd thought Naruto would have been able to keep quiet, she had no clue.

"Sorry," came the muffled reply of Choji and Matsuko facepalmed.

She'd thought that assigning Naruto and Choji as lookouts would stop the possibility of a fight breaking out between Kiba and Naruto and would keep the blond silent. She didn't know why she'd thought _that_ would work either.

Turning to the warm body pressed against her left side, she exchanged an exasperated look with Shikamaru. Sighing, Matsuko reached out her hands and slowly parted the tiny branches of the bush they were hiding behind aside. Her dark eyes peered out through the small gap and scanned the darkened windows of the Academy.

It had taken them a whole week to solidify a plan.

Convincing the group to break into the Academy and steal the test answers had been a surprisingly easy task. She'd figured that Shikamaru would've been the hardest one to convince, but he'd sent one contemplative look at Choji and agreed. Matsuko had assigned the Nara to be the brains of the operation since his clan was known for not only having very high intelligence, but for their ability to strategize as well. That, and the boy had an IQ of over 200.

She herself was responsible for getting them in, breaking open the cabinets, and copying the test answers. When they'd asked her how she'd be able to get around the complicated locks, she'd only smirked and waggled her fingers. They'd just shrugged it off and trusted her to get the job done. Kiba, Shikamaru, and herself were going to be the three that infiltrated the building. Kiba, because of his heightened senses and Shikamaru because he was a genius. She'd made sure to stress to Kiba that he needed to leave Akamaru outside with Naruto and Choji and it had taken almost an hour to get him to agree.

"Is he finally gone?" Matsuko whispered into the darkness, tilting her head a little towards the tree a few feet behind them knowing that she'd be heard.

Kiba poked his head around the bark, hood pulled up around his head, and shot her a quick thumbs up before whispering back. "I can't hear or smell him anymore."

The unfortunate Academy teacher that had stayed back that night had been there a frustratingly long amount of time. The group of them had been camped out in their hiding spots in the treeline of the Academy yard for hours and Matsuko's legs were starting to fall asleep. She kneaded the muscles through the cotton material of her black pants with a wince.

During their week of planning, Shikamaru had them stay after class let out to use the training grounds for additional "training." He'd split them into groups in order to avoid suspicion as they stayed back to scope out how well guarded the Academy was after hours. Which was, surprisingly, not very well at all. There would be one teacher that would stay back for a few additional hours, mostly in case any students staying behind needed help or medical assistance. Once they left, however, it was free game.

"Alright then." Matsuko sent Kiba a nod and turned back to the boy beside her. "Ready?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru murmured. "Let's go."

Matsuko stood up in a crouch and quietly crept through the trees and bushes around them. She saw Kiba move to follow them out of the corner of her eye and could feel Shikamaru's presence at her back. They moved slowly around the perimeter of the yard, not daring to walk out into the open field. Just because they weren't ninja's yet didn't mean they were _stupid_.

' _Maybe we'll get extra credit or something if we get caught_ ,' Matsuko thought amusedly to herself. Though the possibility was unlikely. If they got caught they'd more than likely get taken to the Hokage for punishment and Matsuko grimaced at the thought. ' _No thank you_.'

As the three of them passed the hiding spot of Naruto, Choji, and Akamaru, she sent a warning glare at the blond and signaled for him to keep quiet. He just grinned back sheepishly and she rolled her eyes at him. Matsuko trusted Naruto to at least not do anything stupid on purpose and if not, Choji would more than likely smother him.

Reaching one of the walls of the building, Matsuko looked up towards the second floor in search of a specific window. The boys tailed behind her before she paused and pointed up at the fourth window they passed under.

"That's the one."

A little before class had ended that day, Matsuko had asked permission to use the restroom and snuck to the second floor classroom that she knew would be cleared of people. The class that used it had been outside participating in taijutsu spars and she'd crept over to the window at the back of the room and unlocked it. Hopefully nobody had noticed and ruined their carefully thought out plan.

Shikamaru and Kiba moved to squat underneath the window and turned to face each other and both cupped their hands in front of them. Kiba sent her an amused grin, fangs glinting in the surrounding darkness.

"Up you go, princess."

Matsuko stuck her tongue out at him for the stupid nickname and walked forward, placing one hand on both of their shoulders. Her sandaled feet came next as she slipped them into their cupped hands and she bent her knees in anticipation.

"Ready?" Shikamaru asked. At her nod, he counted out loud, "alright. On one, two, _three_."

On three, both boys shot up and flung their arms upwards. Matsuko jumped when their arms hit their peak and her bangs whipped around her face as she flew upwards. Her hands snapped out and grabbed onto the small window ledge, arms easily holding her body weight. Lifting herself with one arm like she was doing a pull-up, she used her other hand to slowly slide the window upwards.

It moved like warm butter under her palm and she grinned in success. The window moved noiselessly and Matsuko completely pulled herself up and into the dark, empty classroom. When her feet touched the floor, she flexed the muscles in her arm with a smirk. "Aaaand thank you, aniki."

Matsuko popped her head back through the open window and grinned down at the two boys staring up at her. She extended her arms out and wiggled her fingers, signaling for Kiba to lift up Shikamaru. The Nara carefully placed his feet onto Kiba's shoulders as he bent down and once his footing was secured Kiba stood back up. Shikamaru, balanced on Kiba's shoulders, reached his arms up to grab her hands.

Heaving, Matsuko managed to pull the sleepy boy in through the window and she poked her head back out once he was safely inside. Kiba had moved to stand about fifteen feet away from the window and he waved his hand at her to signal for her to move out the way.

Matsuko stepped back and watched as Kiba ran full tilt at the building and launched himself up the wall. The balls of his feet dug into the side of the building in quick succession as he bounded up the wall and flipped over the windowsill and into the classroom.

"Showoff," she murmured into the silence. Kiba threw her a cocky smirk.

"Jealous?"

"As if."

"You sure? Doesn't seem like it."

"Guys," Shikamaru cut in before she could retort and she flicked Kiba in the forehead as she made her way to the door, ignoring his amused expression.

When they reached the door, Kiba took the lead and slid the door open. He poked his head out for a moment before he leaned back into the classroom, his dark eyes glinting like a cat's. "There's some tripwires set up in the hallway. They're mostly at adult height, but we'll have to crawl under the lower ones."

"Lead the way."

He didn't need any more prompting and his slid out into the hallway, Matsuko and Shikamaru trailing him. They'd chosen that day to complete the heist, not just because they were ready, but because the classroom they snuck out of was the closest to the teacher's lounge. Moving down the hallway, they dropped onto their stomachs to crawl under the low hanging, almost invisible tripwire. Each wire was spaced about a foot apart all the way up until they hit the ceiling. Matsuko didn't know what traps they would set off and definitely didn't want to find out. If either of them were any bigger, they'd probably manage to trip one instead of just easily sliding underneath. She silently thanked the enhanced vision of the Inuzuka as they crawled down the hallway.

When they finally reached the end, the three of them stood up and Matsuko dusted off the front of her long sleeve black shirt. Her hair was piled into a dark beanie on her head and her hands were covered with the stretchy material of a pair of onyx colored gloves. The boys had made fun of her when she'd first shown up that night.

( _"Is that your ninja outfit?" Naruto squeezed out through his laughter. Matsuko merely rolled her eyes and stated that at least she was smart enough not to wear_ bright orange _at_ night _.)_

"This is it." Matsuko murmured to the two boys standing next to her outside a boring looking wooden door. There was nothing indicating what the room contained and Matsuko figured it was in case of an intruder or something. Better to make it as confusing as possible for someone to find it.

"Hear or smell anything?" Shikamaru aimed the question at Kiba and he shook his head.

"Nothing."

"Let's do this thing then." Matsuko twisted the door open and paused for a moment to stare inside. The room was decently sized with couches arranged into a square in the center of the room. A coffee maker sat on top of a small metal cabinet at the back of the room and a small television was attached to the wall to the right of it with a VCR play beneath it. A few doors lined both sides of the room and the boys trailed behind her as she walked over to the last one on the left.

Again, there weren't any plaques or room numbers above or beside the door. The only reason why she knew which door to go for was because of all the times that Naruto dragged her into his pranks and they got in trouble. Iruka would drag them both to his office by their ears to lecture them on their "misbehaviour."

Matsuko opened the door without thought and bit back a scream of alarm when Kiba tackled her to the ground. She smacked face first into the wood and grimaced at twinge of pain from her nose. The noise of air being distilled met her ears and she blinked at the _thunk-thunk-thunk_ of something hitting a wall out in the lounge.

"What the hell was that?" Her exclamation was muffled by the fact that her face was shoved into the wooden floor.

"A kunai trap," Shikamaru informed from somewhere behind her.

"You shouldn't have just waltzed right in like you owned the place." Kiba grunted as he rolled off her.

Groaning in pain, Matsuko sat up and gently prodded her nose. When all she felt was a slight tinge of pain, she looked past the doorway to see a handful of kunai embedded into the wall. If Kiba hadn't thrown himself on her, she more than likely would have been impaled five times over.

"Thanks," she whispered to the boy in shock. Kiba had just saved her life.

"Yeah, yeah." The Inuzuka reached out a hand and hauled her to her feet and grinned at her shocked face. "You owe me."

Matsuko snorted at his joking tone and patted him on the shoulder before slowly walking behind the desk. Iruka's office was pretty plain, if she were being honest. There weren't any pictures hanging on the walls or any personal touches. Just two chairs in front of a wooden desk and one behind it. A large filing cabinet stood behind the desk and that was what she headed for.

"Careful." Shikamaru warned as she approached the filing cabinet.

Matsuko hummed and pursed her lips as she tried to pull open one of the drawers and failed. She tapped the middle finger of her right hand against her leg in thought and turned her attention to inspect the keyhole at the top of the cabinet. For something that held the personal files of students, Matsuko was surprised that it only had one lock.

"How're you gonna get it open?" Shikamaru placed himself next to her and she threw him a smirk.

"You'll see." Reaching into one of the pockets of her pants, Matsuko pulled out a well used piece of white chalk and her house key. Ignoring the curious looks from the boys, she slid her house key into the lock, stopping when it failed to go all the way in. She slowly removed her hand to make sure that they key stayed in place before lifting the chalk.

With a steady hand she drew a perfect circle around the key, ensuring that she left enough space for the rest. Inside of the circle, much like the first one she'd ever drawn, she made a diamond. Next, she created another perfect circle so that the edges of the diamond stuck out of it and then made the steady lines of a triangle inside of that. The key was positioned directly in the center of the transmutation circle and Matsuko stepped back to study her work.

"What's that?" Kiba's head peeked out from over Shikamaru's shoulder and Matsuko held up a hand to signal for him to wait.

She then took that same hand and touched it to the edge of the circle. Matsuko took a deep breath and closed her eyes in concentration. Over the past few months, she'd taken a large amount of time out of her day to experiment with alchemy and had managed to learn a few new tricks.

Matsuko easily grabbed onto the warm, familiar chakra at her core and quickly guided it to her hand. The transmutation circle grabbed at it greedily and she could see the blue glow through her closed eyelids. The sound of static electricity hummed in the air as the circle powered up, energy pulsing under her palm. Once it had enough chakra to sustain it, Matsuko sent a little more towards the key sticking out of the lock.

Brow pinched in concentration, she slowly began to shift the atoms inside the key. It moved, shifting as it steadily moulded into the shape of the lock. Matsuko's lips lifted into a small smile when the key finally slid into place and the light of the transmutation died, taking the comforting hum with it. Opening her eyes, she used the same hand to grip the surprisingly cool metal of the key and twisted. The lock opened with a satisfying _click_ and Matsuko pulled open one of the drawers with ease.

"How…?" Shikamaru stared intently at the transmutation circle, dark eyes rapidly assessing it. "Fuinjutsu?"

"No," Matsuko stated as she flipped through the files in the cabinet. "Not fuinjutsu. Science."

"Science?" He sent her a scrutinizing look, as if beginning to reassess his entire opinion of her. Matsuko wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad look.

"I don't care what that was, it was cool as shit." Kiba leaned around Shikamaru to flick his eyes over the transmutation circle. "You gotta teach me that."

"Maybe." Matsuko snorted at his response before her fingers paused, lifting up the folder under her nails as she read the label written on it. "Aha!"

She held up the folder in victory before flipping it open and looking through the pages. The answers to the upcoming test was clenched between her hands and grinned at their success. Matsuko shuffled back to the desk and gently placed the small stack of papers down. "Shika-kun, did you bring the stuff like I asked?"

The Nara hummed in response and dug into the pouch attached to his thigh. He walked over to her and set down a stack of blank white paper and a bottle of ink. Matsuko quickly drew another transmutation circle onto the desk, that one a little more complicated than the one she'd drawn on the cabinet. She reached out for the blank paper and set a piece down before grabbing the bottle of ink and slowly pouring a little of it on top. As the black ink into settled onto the blank paper, she gently set the first page of the test in front of her to use as a reference.

Matsuko's slim fingers brushed the transmutation circle and she didn't even blink at the blue light. Slowly but surely, the ink on the paper moved as she urged it to copy what was on the reference pages in front of her. As she finished the first page, Matsuko plucked it from the center of the transmutation circle before replacing it with another blank one.

"This may take a little while," she warned.

It did indeed, take a while. Matsuko worked as fast as she could while Shikamaru watched her from his spot next to her, eyes oddly intrigued. After she finally copied the last page, she sighed in relief and massaged the kink in her neck. Matsuko slipped the original test answers back in the folder and handed it over to Shikamaru along with the copied test and bottle of ink.

"Can you put that back? And wipe away the chalk too?"

He took the folder from her and moved to do as she asked as she cleaned up the mess on the desk. The black sleeve of her shirt was caked with white as she wiped the chalk clean from the desk.

"We done?" Kiba spoke up from his position lounged across one of the chairs and grunted as he stood up and stretched his stiff muscles.

"Yup. We're done." Between the late hour and the chakra she'd used, Matsuko was _tired_.

"Finally," came Kiba's grumbled reply.

As they slipped out of the room and Matsuko pocketed her key, she grabbed the kunai sticking from the wall and handed them to Shikamaru to slip into his hip pouch. For the final time of the night, Matsuko quickly drew another transmutation circle onto the wall to force the wood to meld back together and cover up the holes before erasing the chalk lines.

"Mission accomplished! Let's go home."

' _Naruto better be damned grateful_.'


End file.
